Wednesday September 10, 2025 was like any other day in my life; filled with chores and things I wanted to do vs things I had to do. By the end of my “at work” day I was returning home to get started on awaiting chores at home. Feed the dogs, get some semblance of dinner ready, pick up the messes I had left from the morning. It wasn’t until nearly five o’clock pm that I opened a social media site on my phone to see President Trump’s announcement that Charlie Kirk was dead. Honestly, my first thought was that Mr. Kirk had succumb to some genetic condition like a heart attack or that he might have been in an accident. As I read further it was revealed that he had been shot while hosting a Turning Point event in Utah.
Then I did something I regret. I watched the video of the moment he was shot, his body slumping in a position that told me he was gone. While I recognize the beauty and the wonder of the human body, there is something completely grotesque about them when normal functioning ceases. Perhaps it’s grotesque (to me) because without our spirit within our bodies they are nothing but bags of flesh and muscle and fluids.
It is the soul within us that spurs the flesh to function.
My first reaction was intense sorrow. I actually cried for a moment. I despise waste. Whether its the waste of human life, food, money, time or potential, I get angry when I see it. My next thought was to Mr. Kirk’s wife and children. They are now, forever, without their provider, their protector, their example of manhood. And their family is never going to be the same.
It is then that my mind turned toward God and why this happened.
I know Charlie Kirk is a Christian and as such I know that he resides with his Savior-the same Savior that allowed Charlie to die. Yes, God is sovereign and nothing happens, good or bad, without His approval. I don’t understand it. I don’t like it. But I am not God. I did not create Charlie Kirk, God did. In the Old Testament book of Job, we meet a man named Job whom God favors and protects. Yet, one day in a conversation with “the Satan” (Hebrew for Accuser), God “allows” the Satan to take away everything and everyone (except his wife) that Job held dear. In his misery, in response to his wife’s plea to him to “curse God and die.” Job utters; “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Joseph, as recounted in the book of Genesis 50:20 confronts his brothers who had sold him into slavery, lied to their grieving father about the matter and kept their collective, shameful, secret from everyone. Years later the brothers came to Egypt looking for grain to buy and they and Joseph (though they didn’t recognize him at first) are reunited.
Joseph had risen to a position of power second only to the Pharoah of Egypt. And because of his character and his belief in God’s goodness, Joseph engineered the storing of grain in anticipation of a famine. Joseph’s response to seeing the brothers who condemned him to slavery? He said to his brothers; “But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. (NKJ)”
Vacillating between anger and sorrow I admit I allow my mind to wade into a vat of bitterness that covered me to a point that I wanted to punish anyone and everyone that would wish harm upon, not just Charlie Kirk but, anyone they disagree with about politics or world views.
And then I think about those people that more than likely do not know Jesus; that have no moral anchor, nothing to cling to when life doesn’t make sense, nothing to look forward to. Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot in his song “Sit down young stranger” says: “The answer is not easy, for souls are not reborn. To wear the crown of peace you must wear the crown of thorns. If Jesus had a reason I’m sure He would not tell. They treated Him so badly, how could He wish them well?”
This is what God calls us to do at times like this: Jesus, whipped, nailed by his hands and feet to a cross of wood pleaded with God to “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It was a way to communicate to us to accept His sovereignty. Accept that He is the Creator of everything and that we don’t have a say in how the universe is run.
Jesus told us to pray for our enemies and I am having a struggle to do that right now.
For those familiar with the Book of Job, during his suffering Job receives a lot of flak and bad counsel from his friends and is mightily upbraided by God Himself for his response to what has happened to him and his family. So, the question arises; “What should have Job done?” I believe the answer is that he should have stopped talking after he proclaimed that we have to accept good and bad from our Lord and gotten back to the business of living.
A sad, sick individual decided that it would be a good idea to murder Charlie Kirk. History repeats itself ad nauseum with stories of lost souls looking for a way to prove that they matter in this world. They don’t know their Father, their Creator and as such direct their flailing, unsubstantiated anger at people they have never met nor would ever have a chance to meet which then gives way to planning and a chance at meaning through violence.
God gives us that meaning we so want to have and without Him we have a giant hole in our soul. We are simply bags of grotesque flesh going through the motions of life until we return to the dust.
In the end, I’m still sad because of what I see as waste. And while I am not in any way comparing Charlie Kirk to Jesus the Christ I have to believe that God is good and only wants the best for us. He sent His only Son to die so we could once again be in relationship with Him. Charlie was born of the flesh, then born of the Spirit when he accepted Jesus as his Savior and now he has been called to his eternal home.
Somehow I must find a way to shut up and accept what God has done.
