Defining Moments

This was a week of defining moments, not only for me personally, but collectively.

Defining moments come suddenly, unexpectedly. They divert the course you were on. They require attention, awareness, and reflection.

And they demand change.

I won’t get into all the personal defining moments, except to say that they were several, and some were pleasant, some not at all pleasant. I share a couple of them below.

Both the collective and personal defining moments sparked tremendous grief. And, also, oddly, a sense of hope.

As you might have guessed, the collective grief I refer to has to do with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, whom I didn’t follow much but am familiar with.

From those who knew him, even if they disagreed with him, you get the picture of someone who spoke about faith, conservative values, and whose passion was that there would be vigorous debate and freedom of speech. 

He was committed to encouraging a generation of young people to really think, and he was respectful and courteous to those he disagreed with. In fact, he told those who disagreed with him to get to the head of the line to interact with him on his campus debate tours. 

When I first heard the news of the shooting on Wednesday, the first words that came to me were, “And so it begins.” I do not know where that came from or what it means.

I also remembered the parable found in the Gospel of John (John 12:24), where Jesus explains that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

When I saw the video Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, released just two days after his murder, I was moved to tears and wondered if—and prayed that—this seemingly senseless death would be the seed from which God would bring some good. “Much fruit.”

One of the sources of grief is not only the fact that a talented, good man and father of two young children was gunned down in cold blood, but the media insinuations by some that “he had it coming.”

To anyone who feels that way, I would ask, as Charlie might, “Where is that coming from? Did you actually view any of the videos of his interactions with those who disagreed with him? Or are you going by what people said about him?”

Whenever I hear someone being vilified, I always go back to the source and look at/listen to what the person actually said. Often words are taken out of context and spun along the lines of a person’s ideology. When they are spun with hate mixed in, I immediately know it’s evil.

I was grieving over all this as I drove to my dentist’s office, who graciously agreed to see me for a very strange dental emergency that arose last night. Suddenly in the car, I felt the presence of Jesus. His presence brought a peace I rarely ever feel, not even in prayer or church.

I asked him, “Why are you so peaceful? Here I am, feeling so sorrowful, and you come with peace?”

I felt him smile gently and confidently, and say, “I’m peaceful because I know what I’ve done [I knew he was referring to the cross and his resurrection], and what I am doing.”

He added, “And I give you my peace.” (See John 14:17.) 

One of the other personal defining moments from this week was a therapy session in which I learned how to hold both the troubling emotions and the strengthening emotions and truths together. 

Both the grief and the hope are true and valid. We need to hold them together, because that’s the world we live in. There is evil, and we need to face that. 

There is also hope.

My hope is in what Jesus told me today: that he conquered sin (evil) on the cross, and that he is now in the process of undoing that evil as he spreads his light in this world, largely through the believers in which he lives by the Holy Spirit, to “expose and thwart evil, reveal truth, and guide our feet in the paths of peace.”

You and I can be part of that light. Jesus said we who follow him are the light of the world. Charlie Kirk unabashedly shone that light brightly. He knew there could be a terrible cost. He pressed on anyway.

We too can and must be—must be—lights that push back the darkness. 

That is why every single day I pray the prayer below that every week I include in my Healing Heart Issues Digest newsletter. 

I hope you will too. 

Let this be the defining moment when we each commit to the true Light, and to being clear reflections of that Light.