We will never be the same.
It is hard to believe still, the shock comes and goes, and so does the grief, but here we are. I see you smiling, tossing hats into the crowd, alive with fire and joy. That is the image of you that endures…one of power and love with light in your eyes, the light of God that once set fire to the stars.
The moment I heard I knew you were gone but I prayed anyway, because I wasn’t just praying for you. I prayed for your beautiful Erika and your children and all who love you, but I prayed also for all of us. I prayed for us because in that moment God showed me how we had been leaning on you. I saw the weight of all you had done and how much ground had shifted because you were willing to walk on it without fear.
People who maybe did not know your name, counting on you without knowing. Why? Because you were the only one brave enough to walk a forbidden path onto college campuses, marching with purpose into the hallowed halls of indoctrination with a disarming smile, the armor of God and the sword of the spirit which we known as the truth. You were strong enough in yourself and in your faith to walk away from acceptance to Brown University so that you could lead. You were just out of high school and you went to war. David vs Goliath.
I met you not long afterwards when you came to my tiny town of ten or eleven thousand people, in the heart of the Hill Country in central Texas. It was September 5th 2017 and we sat on the stage at Hondo’s, a favorite local restaurant and bar that takes it’s name from the much-loved Hondo Crouch, a man who built Luckenbach, Texas into the history of outlaw country music with his friends Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. We chose that place to hear from you because the owners are like family and with open hearts and open minds, they opened their doors to you, to hear what this bold young man had to say. We knew it mattered because one after another, families were losing their children to these colleges, sending them away to learn only they never came back. And no one was talking about it or telling them why.
Enter Charlie Kirk. I knew your name, your fight was not unfamiliar. But your words were like a parting of the seas. People sat in stunned silence as you listed words like “mankind” that administrations had banned on campuses, including colleges right there in Texas that many sitting in that room still believed were unassailable bastions of conservatism. You showed how America’s noble places of learning had become centers of anti-American hatred where radical anarchist and Marxist indoctrination had turned critical thinking and freedom of thought into a war crime. You revealed how their children had been taken hostage by a system that forced them to become someone else just to survive. Like a cult, they had to turn their backs on who they were and sacrifice their families, parents and their faith on the altar of un-forgiveness, where anyone who did not agree had no right to live.
Charlie, you saw all of this and rejected it. You would not bear false witness and you would not bow. You were just a kid, yet somehow you were bigger than all of us and yet still one of us at the same time. One reason was that much like the man you adored, Jesus Christ, you loved people. It is a love you cannot fake or manufacture, permanently revealed in word and deed, with consistency and time. People know in their hearts and their souls if it’s real or not. It’s a certainty no one can take away.
And millions of people loved you back, none more so than college kids who found their courage because you never lost yours. They loved you for the way you stood your ground and fought for them, with grace. You brought them out of hiding and into the light. The chapters you created gave them protection and a home. Some people may have forgotten how you were protested and blocked and attacked. I have not and I am not alone.
In desperation, your detractors say you were a college dropout - that’s a lie. But there is an irony here that I suspect was not lost on you: they accused you of undermining education because you exposed college indoctrination. Yet you often spoke with a knowledge and depth that was breathtaking and affirmed the power of learning in a way that inspires people for life. Perhaps they were especially bitter because that is something most colleges seem to have long since forgotten how to do.
We did not know when you took the stage on that college campus in Utah that it would be your last. With thousands gathered, the sky clear and blue, the midday sun shining on a crowd of thousands, you were in your element, radiant, smiling, stronger than ever. . .It seems impossible that you were just 31-years-old and in ten short years, built a movement that changed the course of history in this country and in other desperate places around the world. Only now do I understand how far you carried us all and how much work falls on our shoulders. I see you standing tall in heaven, still leading from the front. We know this battle is spiritual and one of God’s finest warriors just took his up his rightful place.
Charlie, your words travelled far and wide in your lifetime. But in death, they will reach beyond lifetimes and echo for generations. Your message will not be lost because you are the message. And you lived the word. And God spoke through you to rest in the hearts of all.
My prayer for you is that Erika and your children find comfort and peace in their faith and the power of your love and the love of God which conquers all and surpasses all of our understanding.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
