On Thursday morning, September 11, my very first thought upon waking was how Erika Kirk felt as she woke up that morning. I imagined her slowly waking up only to be hit with a pang of shock at remembering the events of the previous day. My mind quickly shifted to the realization that she probably hadn’t slept at all. Most likely for her, it was a long night of reliving the tragedy of her husband, Charlie Kirk’s death. But, sleep or no sleep the sun was rising on a new day for her, one that would be dramatically different, one wrapped in immense heartache and grief.
I looked at my toddler son lying in bed asleep beside me and imagined Erika looking at her children, still too young to grasp the meaning of the tragedy that had unfolded the day before. I thought about her moving through the “figuring out” of things… the next steps for burial and the future of the Turning Point organization, now without their founder and leader.
But mostly, my mind kept returning to Erika simply as a wife and mother, because in a moment of tragic loss the highest accolades and achievements might be mentioned, or even discussed heavily as in the case of Charlie Kirk, but at the core of the pain are our most basic and most precious roles: husband, father, wife, mother, child… the role of everyone left behind is forever changed by the loss of one.
As I grabbed my morning coffee, Bible and toddler, my focus was on Erika and her children, what they lost and why. I opened my Bible to Psalm 11 and read. How powerfully it spoke to Charlie and the evil that happened to him, Erika and their children. “For look, the wicked string bows; they put their arrows on bowstrings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.” Psalm 11:2
The reason laid right there before me. Could it be more clearly stated?
Engaging the Social Media Generation
Charlie engaged the public. He brought a generation of people who are (often rightly) accused of living on and through their smartphones out to engage face to face in the living public square. By taking his discussions offline and going onto campuses he helped lift faces from phone screens to directly face each other. This is a feat that should not be overlooked.
Charlie openly debated ideas with those who disagreed and took questions from the like-minded all while openly and unashamedly professing the gospel.
Grief
Over the last few weeks I have personally felt: the initial shock, physically ill, heartbroken, a sense of calm due to the fact that Charlie so boldly believed and shared the gospel, lazy at watching all that he and Erika accomplished, a twinge of jealousy upon recognizing how wholly Erika and Charlie each supported the other, inspired, thankfulness that I have used my own voice to the best of my ability, glued to but annoyed at the 24 hour news cycle analysis and disappointment at the predictability of staunchly leftist friends who have publicly stated “no one should be murdered… but…”
I also felt an odd undercurrent of guilt for feeling so much grief as if it was not my place. Should grief be reserved only for those who were close family and friends? I know the answer to that is, no.
While we may not have familial ties to Charlie, absent the inclusion of Christian brotherhood/sisterhood, which many have noted, and most of us don’t know him outside of his media presence, there are valid reasons that this has hit so hard, reasons more to do with how he lived and how it inspires us to live than how he died.
Why do so many feel so impacted by Charlie Kirk’s death?
Before moving on I want to reiterate: HOW HE LIVED is the reason Charlie Kirk’s death hit so hard for so many. I have seen many people posing this question, “why are so many sharing about Charlie’s death but they never share about school shootings?” On the flip side many are noting that they have been asked this very question and the answer has mostly been, “you/I don’t owe anyone an explanation.” But, I want to offer a reason because there absolutely is one.
School shootings are horrific, any murder is, including Charlie Kirk’s. But with school and other mass shootings, the only thing most of us have to discuss is the horror of the tragedy coupled with debate on how to prevent the next one. In the case of Charlie Kirk’s death, there was an additional opportunity for conversation apart from the tragedy itself… the opportunity to talk about his life. He lived a very public life and he lived it in a way that made his life worth discussing. How he lived has made people all over the world take a look in the mirror and reflect on how they are living their own lives.
That’s the difference. It’s not that Charlie’s death was any more or less tragic than others. It’s not that people simply don’t care about or overlook the other tragedies. It’s that we observed his life and saw it deserving of discussion.
Living Boldly for Christ
Charlie lived boldly for Christ and his convictions which were anchored by his Christian worldview. I have seen so many posts and videos since Charlie Kirk passed away from people openly declaring a stance that up until that moment they had kept private. This was usually due to fear – fear of losing a following, losing business or losing friends.
If we are called to disciple others, if we are to do justice and correct oppression, if we are to love our neighbors and our enemies, how can we live with a private faith? How do we sit idle allowing culture to keep pushing forward swallowing up the youth and the weak minded into the collective madness? Can we even call ourselves followers of Christ if our own comfort is the thing we put up on a pedestal and vow to cherish and protect? Can we say we have faith at all if we aren’t willing to lose anything, even something as small as money, for it?
So often I think the bar for what it looks like to be bold is set by those speaking up by social media. We see fiery and fierce content that goes viral, by design. So, when people start to consider “living boldly” they picture something so far out of not only their comfort zone, but also their own personal calling.
Living boldly doesn’t necessarily mean getting loud, posting on social media or becoming a pro at debating. It does mean knowing what you stand and remaining firmly planted, not cowering or caving for the sake of comfort.
One of my favorite essays, Live Not By Lies by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a perfect example of this. If you haven’t read it, do it now, it’s provoking and as applied here, a great playbook for how to start living boldly for Christ without really having to “do” anything. The most basic and effective beginning measure of boldness is simply to refuse to live out the lies in our everyday lives. Add in a willingness to proclaim your faith in conversation with others and you are on your way to living boldly for Christ.
You don’t need a platform or podium
Most people correlate Charlie Kirk’s boldness for Christ with his open public forum but that open public forum was simply his platform, his way because of who he was and where he was placed. But what he did with where he was planted is exactly what Solzhenitzyn described.
Charlie lived not by lies and proclaimed his faith everywhere he went. We all have different locations, roles and circumstances. We don’t need a public platform to do what Charlie did. We can do it in our homes, at our schools, with our friends, family and in our churches; and let’s acknowledge many churches could use a dose of truth.
It’s important to remember we can be bold for Truth while loving others, in fact, if we are bold without love for others we aren’t doing it for Christ we have let our own pride and self righteousness sneak in and that rubs against the grain of our goal.
Be Bold & Love Others
Charlie did this really well, maybe not perfectly… but let’s remember, he professed his belief in Christ as his Lord and Savior, and his need for Christ, he did not claim to be perfect like Christ. If you actually watch his interactions you can see that the vast majority of the time it’s apparent that Charlie cared deeply about the people he debated and disagreed with. In fact, multiple people with whom he disagreed have publicly shared encouraging messages they personally received from him. This is something we can all learn and grow from.
Bold living will come along with disagreement and debate, just never forget that it should all be done in love.
“What makes the West great is we do good after evil, not evil after evil.” Charlie Kirk said this in a Surrounded debate specifically on the topic of abortion. But it applies now. Let’s get up, press on and do some good.
Please consider joining my email list below & clicking to subscribe to Boom Clap Podcast.
