Has your heart been heavy since hearing about the death of Charlie Kirk?
This post is difficult for me. But as a bible believing Christian that loves Jesus, I must talk about this. I have been wrestling with God on this one. Do I talk about this on my podcast/blog post or not? Do I talk about this horrific assassination of Charlies Kirk, a God-fearing man that was 31, with a wife and two small children who proclaimed the gospel to young people and shared Bible knowledge with love. He was a man to whom God had given the beautiful gift of being able to share the truth of the Bible to such a misinformed young audience, encouraging them to come up to an open mic on a college campus and have an open dialogue with him and to share their ideas and disagreements and to have a civil debate. Charlie was showing the world how we can have differences of opinions and come together in conversation.
God has won, I am doing what I feel he is leading me to do. He has shown me that if I can come on my podcast each week and talk and profess, I am a believer, a Christian, I must be willing to talk about the hard things. I have been praying about this. I have asked the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom. To not make this about me! But to use me to encourage you.
So where were you when you heard Charlie Kirk had been shot? What were your initial feelings? How are you processing those feelings? For me I was home when I heard Charlie Kirk had been shot. My podcast for that Wednesday had been published and I was going to go on social media to promote it. In that moment, my social media feed was blowing up. Charlie Kirk had been shot on a college campus in Utah. I began to pray: “Lord please perform a miracle. Please let him live Lord!” Such a moment of unbelief. Then the news broke he had passed away. I was so emotional. I cried those hard gut-wrenching tears. How about you? How did this news affect you?
I had seen Charlie Kirk four weeks before this, when, on August 10th, he came to Albuquerque to Legacy Church. Literally one month to the horrific day, I had seen him in person. I am a huge Charlie Kirk fan. I loved his brilliant mind. He never used notes. His recall of knowledge and facts was like no one I had ever seen before. His love, sense of humor and yet his firmness with the truths of the Bible were undeniable. His boldness for the gospel required so much courage. He spoke about his love for Christ, his love for his family and his love for the constitution, free speech, and his love for the United States. Thinking back to that night at Legacy the auditorium was completely full. There were so many young people. It was full of black people, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, and white people. And they all loved him. He had so many people line up and ask him questions, and he answered every one of them with respect, even with the people that were bringing up controversial issues, he would hear them out and answer them with facts and God’s word. I could have sat there listening for hours. When we left, I felt invigorated and challenged to be bolder in sharing my faith and not be so afraid and wanting to not offend anyone. All I kept thinking was that I was so glad we came, even in getting to the talk that night, the traffic, walking in the rain, the horrible winds that had picked up and even walking through some ugly protesters. I am so thankful I got to see this incredibly gifted man speak again. I had been fortunate that I had gotten to see him a few years earlier. And he was even better his time. I loved it!
I share all that because that, from my first-hand experience, is who CHARLIE KIRK was to me. He was a faithful man of God who stood on biblical principles, who was willing to talk about it, debate about it. He loved his country and wanted us to appreciate the freedoms that we all have!
What do you know about CHARLIE KIRK? What were your thoughts when you heard he passed away? Again, for me I loved what this man stood for. After I heard he had died, my emotions went from being sad and heartbroken to times of anger. I was praying to God, why did he have to die? None of it made sense. I, probably like you, fell into sadness and grief. I felt so heavy. I kept praying and the verse that kept coming to mind was our ways are not God’s ways. “Monette you need to trust God.” He knew this was the outcome, he welcomed Charlie home that day, but selfishly I didn’t want that outcome. For the next few days, I found myself endlessly scrolling, seeing all the beautiful tributes and then the horror of those celebrating his murder and death. I saw first-hand the spiritual battle we are in. I believe as we are seeing so much ugliness on social media, it shows us what a broken and fallen world we live in. I have been reminding myself, after studying the book of Revelation in Bible Study Fellowship last year, that in the end days “the people will think evil is good and good is evil.” We are seeing just that.
The next day, after Charlie’s death, I went to Bible Study Fellowship. It was the first day of a new study for this year. I am so glad I went. I felt the comfort of being with other believers who love Jesus and want to study and understand his word deeper. I also found comfort in my quiet times each morning and laying all the things I’ve been feeling and thinking before the Lord in prayer. I’ve been asking the Lord, who do you want me to be? What do you want me to do? I have been making a conscious decision to stay off social media and to stop feeding my mind this continuous loop of information. That has lightened the heaviness somewhat. The most helpful was on Sunday morning, I woke up early and tuned into to listen to some pastors on-line that I highly respect. I listened to two different sermons; they both spoke about CHARLIE KIRK and spoke how our hope is in Jesus Christ. We then went to our church, New Covenant where the pastor gave such a beautiful tribute to Charlie Kirk. There wasn’t a dry eye in that service. The pastor spoke truth, talked about those who have been martyred for their faith and gave a strong message about knowing and studying the Bible, and being bold for Christ during this time of Christian persecution. He encouraged us to pray for those who are lost and for those saying all the ugly hurtful things during this time. The sermon was about faith not fear! It was a strong and powerful message.
As I’ve shared some of my pain at the loss of such a great man of God to an assassination. I’ve shared a few things that have brought me comfort: my quiet times, being with other believers, making an effort to stay off social media, and going to a physical church to worship, to be fed, be encouraged and be reminded this world is our temporary home. My prayer for you is that, if you aren’t already, you will do these things.
My final thoughts as I am winding this episode down, is I am praying that this senseless murder is the turning point like so many are saying and we see a huge revival and see so many come to Christ because this wakes them up, both young and old of the spiritual battle we are in. And that we personally take action and become bold and courageous and we have the conversations about who Jesus is in our lives and share the gospel. God put this on my heart to share, and I pray this has been encouraging for you.
This podcast episode/blog post is like no other I’ve ever done. God’s ways are bigger than our ways and even though we may not understand everything that has happened the truth is Jesus loves you and is sitting at the right hand of God interceding for you, and what he has called us to do is trust him and spend time in his word and prayer. He is our comfort ❤️
Monette hosts a weekly podcast: Mornings with Monette. She has been a lifelong learner and and appreciates the opportunity to share what she has learned–both through her podcast and here at The Best-Life Project (based on the content of her weekly podcast). Her messages are raw, honest and straight from the heart. She lives in Albuquerque, NM with her husband Leland. They have three adult children and are enjoying living their best lives filled with travel and adventure. For more information, visit: http://morningswithmonette.com/.