What a difference a day can make. At this time yesterday, my heart was pretty light, although the last week has been difficult due to some significant challenges facing people I deeply care for. I’d just posted a couple of reflections on compassion and empathy, purpose and mission. I was planning a camping trip up into Idaho next spring.

Not today.

Today, I am angry, grieving, raw.

Twenty-four years ago, today, a number of fanatical Islamic jihadists (Warriors for Allah) attacked our country, our way of life, our fundamental values. They were considered martyrs, dying for a cause they felt as just.

Yesterday, a man whom I admire deeply for his commitment to those fundamental values was assassinated and I am not a little bereft.

Yes, my faith and trust in God is as firm as ever. I have no doubts in that regard. However, I’m struggling to comprehend what is happening in our country and around the world.

Charlie Kirk had the audacity to publicly state his bedrock values … including the importance of free speech and open debate. He decried the insipid movement to tear down the key principles on which our country was founded and for which countless Americans have given their lives to protect. He was a kind and loving man, a devoted husband and father, a humble and faithful friend who seemingly had time to connect with thousands. He did not apologize for his core beliefs, including his overtly Christian views.

He saw our society at a crossroads. He saw and called out organized attacks against family, free speech, and the Judeo-Christian beliefs that led to concepts like liberty, freedom, and common-sense truths.

For this, he was martyred.

And, just as the organization he built is named Turning Point, I think this is a turning point. A watershed moment. A defining moment.

Others may disagree but I see this as a battle of good and evil. Build up or tear down.

Evil says it’s ok for adults to countenance the mutilation of children and even give those children permission to permanently damage themselves so as to march lock step with a brutal and insane ideology. And some of those children are not even old enough to drive a car. Evil says it’s ok to light cities on fire, burn down businesses, attack people at random and espouse philosophies of nihilism and communism, both of which have led to the deaths of hundreds of millions. Evil says it’s ok for ideologies that espouse genital mutilation of young girls and the subjugation of women to bloom and grow in our midst. Evil says it’s ok to silence the voices of high school and college students who have the audacity to disagree with the tyrannical authorities in many of our schools and universities.

All martyrdom is not equal. The Islamic fundamentalists adhere to a core belief that it is their duty to subjugate all humans and to kill those who resist. Theirs is a holy war to push back civilization to the dark ages, before the welling up of concepts such as freedom and individual liberty.

All martyrdom is not equal.

Nathan Hale had one regret … that he had but one life to give for his country. And, it wasn’t just a country, it was an idea that all men and women are created equal in the eyes of God, that we have a right to live free. Patrick Henry famously stated, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

John the Baptist. Jesus. Stephen, the first Christan martyr. Many thousands of early Christians crucified, fed to the lions. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who famously wrote Cost of Discipleship.

Charlie Kirk, Christian martyr. A good man who gave his life to defend the principles that unapologetically made this country great.

I am not afraid of dying. I know that we humans can be seen as bit players in the vast conflict between supernatural good and evil, while each of us is completely invaluable in the eyes of God. Jesus not only preached peace but he also preached war. In this war, we are called to put on metaphorical armor as the apostle Paul declares in his letter to the church in Ephesus.

Right now, I am hurting for Charlie’s family and for his large circle of friends and the millions of young people who he has energized in this battle between good and evil. Eventually, my anger and grief may diminish but it will take time. I am not complacent nor fatalistic. 

I was on the phone last evening with a close friend and a remarkable educator who is also one of the strongest Christians I know. He is facing an extremely tough challenge right now and shared with me that he is continuing to pray Psalm 27 as he has it memorized.

I slept little last night but when I got up well before dawn, I committed to opening my bible to that psalm as I knew its basis. When I picked up my phone to read the daily scripture, as I do first thing, out of thousands of possibilities, I stared at a verse from Psalm 27.

You can’t make this up.

As David wrote three thousand years ago:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Charlie arrived in heaven yesterday and there was a mighty banquet and celebration in that other reality. He died as he lived. Engaged. Kind. Purposeful. Loving.

May we honor his legacy by carrying on his mission.

See you on the other side, brother.