Today is a solemn day.
Even without the tragic events that shattered our hearts as word came in on our newswires yesterday, September 11 would have been a solemn day—one of remembrance. We would have been remembering the unthinkable evil that turned peaceful commercial passenger planes into weapons of mass destruction. We would have been remembering the lives lost so suddenly. The firefighters who gave all. We would have been remembering that there was a time when we could still be shocked, and instead of turning to one another with accusation, we turned to our neighbors in unity. We were Americans, and we grieved together. We spoke more softly for a little while. We held space for each other, even in silence, because there weren’t words adequate to express the national wound that day.
Today, I am not working in our headquarters office where I was yesterday. I’m processing and writing at home, alone, at my kitchen table. I’m staying off the internet and social media as much as I can because I don’t want the algorithms to warp my perspective. I want my eyes on God and God alone right now. That is hard to do when you work in the news, and hard to do when you live in a culture that is bombarded with information all the time, right at our fingertips, in our back pockets.
But summarizing the news is required for context to this special edition newsletter.
Yesterday, 31-year-old conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and co-founder of Turning Point USA was shot and killed while engaging with students at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Kirk was known for his passionate efforts to debate college-age individuals on current issues. His signature method to invite debate was raising a controversial conservative opinion and then challenging students to “prove me wrong.” Some found his passion and direct manner abrasive. Others felt his boldness was admirable. He was outspoken about professing his confidence that he was a sinner saved by grace in Christ, and he fielded questions about that faith with detailed apologetics.
Kirk was on a nationwide tour of college campuses and was an approved guest of the university despite a small petition that tried to prevent his appearance. The petition garnered fewer than 1,000 signatures from a campus of more than 40,000 enrollees. But while Kirk spoke to the crowd that had gathered to hear him, an as-of-yet-unidentified shooter fired a shot, striking Kirk in the neck. (Please note: There is very graphic and close-up video footage of the shooting circulating on the internet. Even though some of our older readership may be aware of Charlie Kirk and want to know about his death, we are not covering this story on our God’s WORLD News websites because we do not wish to directly or indirectly contribute to any of our audience stumbling upon that video. Even adults may rightly wish to avoid seeing it, and I have taken pains to avoid it myself.)
The husband and father of two young children did not survive the shooting. As of the writing of this newsletter, the shooter has not been apprehended, but the FBI says the rifle used in the shooting was found in a wooded area near the university.
For more on Charlie Kirk’s life, work, and tragic murder, please listen to today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Our WORLD Radio division worked late into the night to deliver this program in a timely manner.
Within an hour of learning of Charlie Kirk’s death, news was circulating of another school shooting, this time at a high school near Denver, Colorado. Several students were injured, and reports this morning say that the self-inflicted wound the shooter suffered was fatal.
There is much to grieve. But we must remind one another that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Our God is still sovereign, and He calls us to bring our concerns before Him as He sits enthroned above all this pain and turmoil. In truth, He has made His enemies a footstool for His feet, and He will carry His church—all who cry out to Him in faith in Christ—into His eternal presence. Not one will be lost.
These are truths to speak aloud and with confidence to our children, even if we speak them through tears. I talked by phone yesterday with one daughter, age 24, who is employed in leadership administration at a conservative college. In her job she arranges events like the one that took place yesterday in Utah. She was physically ill over the tragedy, as I was, and we spoke words of grace to one another. When my high schooler came home with the news, we again talked in attempt to process what had happened—but in the light of the knowledge that God has not forsaken us, and He never will.
I do not claim to know how God will use these tragedies and dark times. What I do know is that we have been here before. My parents told of the assassinations and lynchings in our nation’s past. And God brought us through those dark times. I have told my children of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and how God brought us through those dark times. Indeed, there is nothing new under the Sun. And yet, no political ideology is going to be our saving grace. All our hope is in the One whose ways are not our ways: the One who is both the powerful Lion of Judah who demands justice and the Lamb who is slain, fulfilling justice and offering grace and mercy.
There is so much to pray for today. May it bring us to our knees before Him. Some ideas for how you can pray with the children and young people in your lives:
Pray
- That the shooter will be found and brought to justice in the land of the living, even as we rest in confidence that he or she is already seen and known by God.
- Pray for God to draw near to the brokenhearted who call upon His name—for the Kirk family and for families and friends touched by violence everywhere.
- Pray for the students and other attendees at the Utah event, who were present for such horror.
- Pray for the students and staff at Evergreen High School, that they would be comforted and come to know the God who is able to grant eternal peace and safety.
- Pray for our nation—for reasoning together and for rational, restrained, dignified debate to be made possible.
- Pray for a turning of all hearts back to God and to care for all our fellow humans.
If you are old enough to remember who we Americans were as a people on September 12, 2001, might you seek to be one of those today? I remember, and I pray God will enable me to be who we were then, for His redemptive glory. Be kind. Pray without ceasing. Grieve with those who grieve. Soften words even when speaking truth. Recognize our human limitations. Cry out to God and put Him in His rightful place of authority, justice, and mercy, confident that He is still God and the darkness does not overcome Him.
Our anthem at God’s WORLD News has long been the beloved Maltbie D. Babcock hymn “This Is My Father’s World.” The third verse contains this timely reminder:
This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
Amen and amen.
Grace and peace to you.
