Dear Elim Grace,

Charlie Kirk’s assassination is devastating. For the country. For politics. For freedom. For the young generations among us. My older children followed, watched and admired Charlie. They would bring me clips of him and we would talk about them together. Even as a Christian, they didn’t agree with him nor admire him in every way. But he provoked them and inspired them in the best of ways.

I watched him all the time. I learned. I critiqued. I praised. I criticized. And I would over time come away with the sense that here was a man who was “sent”. That there was – there is – a massive purpose for his life. Some have a voice and some are a voice. His life was a voice that I pray echoes now in ten thousand places through ten thousand lives God will raise up in his place.

Charlie’s assassination was evil. A graphic violent reminder and realization that evil exists in the world. Ultimately, it was a reflection of an Enemy who seeks nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy everything good God has made.

Personally, I think you should watch the video of his assasination more than once, so that you can feel what evil IS and DOES. For all the violence we stream and absorb, will we now turn away because “that’s real”?

But the Enemy overplayed his hand.

Charlie’s assassination is a catastrophe. Some kind of line was crossed. But in the sovereign hands of God it will be a “eucatastrophe”.

Eucatastrophe is an expression coined by J.R.R. Tolkien from the Greek ευ- (“good”) and καταστροφή (“sudden turn”). “In essence, a eucatastrophe is a massive turn in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforeseen victory, usually brought by grace rather than heroic effort. Such a turn is catastrophic in the sense of its breadth and surprise, and positive in that a great evil or misfortune is averted.” Tolkien would go on to say that the joyous “turn” of a Happy Ending is a “sudden and miraculous grace” that is never relied on to happen again.

Charlie Kirk’s death was a “sudden turn” and there is no turning back. But what also is a turn is the Happy Ending only the sudden and miraculous grace of God will bring about through Charlie’s death. God can and will turn this unforeseen “defeat” into an unstoppable and unconquerable victory for Christ over the hearts and minds of young people for generations to come. Courageous, wise, truthful, loving, humble, powerful, anointed voices – voices big in Christ – sent out: “Make straight the way of the King”. Their King. The King of kings, who even now in heaven declares with undying and unbending authority:

“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart: I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Dear Elim Grace, as a pastor, I refuse to make my platform social media. My “platform,” in the sense of the place or the sphere of influence God has called me to, is You. Others may read what I write or hear what I say, but my first obligation, and the people I give myself to, is the local body of Christ named Elim Grace.

So, while I have many more words I could say (here or on social media), there are only a few I must say…which I will in my sermon Sunday. It will be a holy moment and we should prepare our hearts for an encounter with The King.