“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
When I read the full account of Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney’s stories on September 11, 2001, I cried…
Betty Ong was 45 years old, a 14-year veteran flight attendant based in Boston. She’d picked up an extra shift that day so she could join her sister for a vacation in Hawaii. She was working the rear jump seat that morning. Amy Sweeney was 35, a mother of two young children, normally working part-time—she’d taken this flight to cover for a sick coworker. Before takeoff, she’d called her husband, regretting that she was missing the chance to see her daughter off to school that morning. Neither woman clocked in expecting to be at the center of an attack on the United States.
Within minutes of the hijacking, Betty picked up an Airfone in the back of the plane and reached the American Airlines reservations office. For nearly half an hour, she stayed on that line, describing that the cockpit wouldn’t answer, that the purser, Karen Martin, and another attendant, Barbara “Bobbi” Arestegui, had been stabbed, and that something like mace had been sprayed and it was hard to breathe up front. She gave her position. She confirmed, again and again, that this was Flight 11. She stayed calm doing it—so calm that the people on the ground later said her voice sounded almost routine, like she was reading off a checklist instead of narrating the end of her life.
A few rows away, Amy Sweeney reached a colleague at Logan Airport named Michael Woodward—someone she knew and trusted. For twelve or thirteen minutes, she relayed what she could see: a passenger, Daniel Lewin, had been attacked and appeared dead; the hijackers had gotten into the cockpit; and that she believed she saw a bomb, something with red and yellow wires. She even gave seat numbers—details investigators later matched to Mohamed Atta and the other hijackers seated near her. She was doing intelligence work and keeping the passengers calm without regard for her own life.
And then, near the very end, Betty’s last recorded words weren’t a scream. They were a request: “Pray for us. Pray for us.” Amy, watching the ground come up too fast, told Woodward plainly: “I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings! We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. Oh my God we are flying way too low. Oh my God!” And then the line went dead.
Neither of these women knew what that day was going to cost them. They didn’t wake up that morning aware that they were walking into sacrifice. They just kept doing their jobs, and kept serving the people around them. Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney were later named, alongside their captain, John Ogonowski, as the first recipients of an award established in their honor—given each year to people who show extraordinary courage defending or saving lives. Their names are carved into the September 11 Memorial to be remembered and emulated.
Jesus, our greatest Hero, didn’t have the luxury of NOT knowing what was going to happen to Him before He decided to act courageously. He knew exactly what Golgotha would cost Him before He ever left Heaven. He walked toward the cross with full knowledge of every nail, every mocking voice, every moment of abandonment, and He went anyway. Christ’s courage was courage in the full light of foreknowledge—He saw the whole cost and paid it willingly, “for the joy set before him.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Courage deserves our reverence.
Sacrifice inspires us to change the way we move through our own lives and how we treat the people around us. Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney were image-bearers of God, doing sacred work in a flight attendant’s uniform. Their final act on this earth was to serve others and to ask for prayer. Self-sacrifice is the foundation for any great nation. Ordinary people who, in their most extraordinary moments, choose others over self. The proving ground for courage is living sacrificially in the ordinary moments so that when the extraordinary opportunity comes, we are willing to walk through the fire.
The courage to walk through the fire comes from a deep and abiding relationship with God.
We are not afraid because Jesus set the standard. His courage inspires us. Betty and Amy’s courage inspires us. Don’t we also want our lives to be an inspiration to others? We stand on the shoulders of many who sacrificed so much. And we stand, eternally, on the shoulders of a Savior who saw the cross coming from the beginning and yet—carried it for us.
That’s the inspiration I want us to carry today, brothers and sisters. Live like you know your life matters, because it absolutely does! Serve the people in front of you the way Betty and Amy did, without needing to know how the story ends. And live in gratitude for Jesus who did know how His story would end—and thought we were worth it.
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for the courage of those who came before us—those who sacrificed without knowing the cost going in—and thank You most of all for Jesus, who knew the full cost of the cross and yet paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sake. Remind us that every life is a foundation stone in Your story. Give us courage today—not the courage of the fearless, but the courage of the faithful. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In memory of Betty Ong, Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, and all those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
