Never Forget...

Personal reflections on Charlie Kirk & 9/11

Our country has been caught off guard many times. Twenty-four years ago today, I was a young kid living in the Bronx, New York.

I was pulled out of school early—first grade, Ms. McCoy’s class. She was teaching us English.

I was caught off guard by my mom’s tears, the smoke I saw from my porch, and the TV screen that looped the horror of terrorism.

This 9/11 anniversary feels different.

Yesterday, students, security, police officers, onlookers near and far, and Charlie were all caught off guard by a deplorable evil. I never forget 9/11, and now a whole new layer of remembrance is added after the violent death of a strong Christian leader, activist, defender of gospel truth, and defender of free speech. The plot thickens as the layers of terrorism have become thicker. 9/11 comes on the heels of one act of senseless violence after another (Iryna Zarutska, school shootings, etc.).

I was trying to understand why Charlie Kirk’s death just felt different. It was hard to concentrate for the rest of the day. Walking from point A to B felt like trudging through a mud patch. I left the office feeling like the sky had increased in size and I had shrunken.

I loved Charlie Kirk’s ministry, and at times I had a hard time with it. I didn’t always agree with his methodology, but one thing is clear—the man was an unflinching Christian who was a voice for a lot of us when we were too timid to speak out against the deceptions of this age.

I had my disagreements, yet I found myself stopping to watch his Instagram videos every time.

I always watched his YouTube debate clips.

As if through osmosis, my arguments against abortion were becoming stronger, more refined.

My arguments against the deceptive language of a revived sexual revolution were becoming sharper.

Unbeknownst to me, Charlie inspired me to be bolder in the pulpit. He helped me engage with people on the street. He gave me vocabulary that helped me identify what in the world was going on at any given moment.

Maybe that’s why this day feels different. Samuel D. James, in a post yesterday, gave words to my underlying malaise,

The murder of Charlie Kirk feels different. It feels like a true inflection point, a milestone of American cultural history after which things may not be the same. As someone online pointed out, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last summer was shocking, but both his survival and America’s relative familiarity with that sort of thing helped soothe the country’s nerves. Charlie Kirk was not an elected official, but a private citizen. He was a commentator and media personality. Because of that, this killing feels wider in symbolism. Tonight, a lot of Americans feel like someone died on their behalf. And there’s some truth in that.

Leaders who stand firm in a deceptive age and a cowardly age will increase the size of the target on their backs. Of course, this points to the state of our nation, but our nation has hated the truth for a very long time. Hatred has permeated the American heart for a very. long. time.

This may be an event that shapes a generation and should point to two realities: God’s hatred for evil and the desperately wicked heart of man that Jesus came to redeem.

The God we serve hates hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 16:16-19). May this event increase our prayers for justice and for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Wickedness flows in greater measure from unredeemed hearts. May this event increase our boldness to bring the gospel to bear upon hard hearts.

Christ commands us to love our enemies. May this event embolden us to humbly love our enemies, knowing that we ourselves were once overcome by evil, but our evil was overcome by the love of God in Christ Jesus, as the only truly innocent man hung from beams of wood.

But here’s a third reality this event points to: There’s one being in the universe who was not caught off guard by this tragedy. Our omniscient, omnipotent God was sovereign over all of it. He took a husband, father, friend, and brother in Christ home, and He has done no wrong. This evil man meant it for evil, God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). His sovereignty gives rise to confidence that He can work even this together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Like Job, we can worship our sovereign God who reigns over the unfolding evil and declare:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20–21).