Episode 114: Healing Heart(s)

What a rough September it's already been. We've had school shootings and deaths, we've seen someone stabbed to death on a subway, and many of us know who Charlie Kirk is and that he is now with our LORD.

In this episode of Unleashed, Kevin sits down with a special guest to wrestle with one of the most sobering questions of our faith: what does it truly mean to be a truth teller? If speaking the truth costs us everything—our reputation, our comfort, even our lives—are we still willing to speak it? The life and death of Charlie Kirk becomes a launching point for this conversation, reminding us that truth has always come with a price. Jesus Himself told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). To follow Christ is to walk a path that may very well demand our lives, but it is also the only path to real life; to being unleashed for God's glory!

Together, they explore how truth-telling is not simply about bold words—it’s about surrender. Laying our lives down doesn’t always mean physical death, though for some it does. More often, it means dying to self: laying down our pride, our fear of man, our desire for approval, and our addiction to comfort. The apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). The true test of our discipleship is whether Christ is seen in us—even when it costs us friends, opportunities, or security.

The conversation also touches the uncomfortable truth that silence is not neutral. To withhold truth when it is needed most is to fail as a witness. Jesus declared, “Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). Either we stand on the side of truth or we bow to the comfort of compromise. This episode challenges listeners to examine their own willingness to risk it all for the sake of Christ.

But the weight of this call is balanced by the hope of God’s presence and promise. Christ reassures us in John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The cost may be high, but the reward is eternal. Revelation 12:11 describes those who overcame the enemy by “the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” To be a truth teller is to live—and, if necessary, to die—anchored in that eternal hope.

Ultimately, this episode is not about Charlie Kirk, or even about persecution itself—it’s about us. It’s about the choices we face daily: will we tell the truth when it’s inconvenient? Will we hold fast when our voice shakes? Will we lay down our lives, whether in surrender or in sacrifice, because Jesus is worth it? Kevin and his guest bring this question close to the heart, reminding us that Christianity without a cross is no Christianity at all.

The call of Christ is clear: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). To be a truth teller is to embody this love—to give of ourselves fully, regardless of the cost, so that the world may see Jesus through us. This episode of Unleashed is both a sobering challenge and a stirring encouragement to live with the courage of conviction and the hope of eternity.