But God …

It makes me sick that this time last year people were plotting Charlie Kirk’s murder, but God … There’s always a, “but God …”. There must be a, “but God …”. If not, where is our hope? “… Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience,” (Rom. 8: 24-25, ESV).

If we base our hope on what we can see, what does this look like and what is it based on? We see the world before us in all of its brokenness. We see the constant headlines of horrific acts of violence/slander/envy/deceit based on anger, pride, and the whole host of sins in the heart of man—propagated and encouraged by the principalities and powers in high places (Eph. 6). Where is our hope when all we can see is evil, brokenness and pain? Where is our hope, when we see Charlie, a beaming light in this world, murdered horrifically and displayed live for all to see? Where is our hope amongst those who say he perpetuated darkness, and go on to celebrate and promote his death like a prize— continuing even on the very eve of the first anniversary of his murder? What motivates people to see him this way, and be able to freely celebrate the extinguishing of a blazing light in this dark world?

No, we do not hope in what we see. We do not even ultimately battle against flesh and blood, as dark as it can get. Our battle is against the “rulers”, “authorities”, and “cosmic powers” as aforementioned in Ephesians 6. Our battle is against satan himself. Our battle is against ourselves and each other being influenced by these “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” (Eph 6). 

But thanks be to God that he has fashioned this broken, sin-filled, hate-fueled, devil-ruled world to be able to have light amongst the darkness—and the blacker the night, the brighter the dawn. Thanks be to God! Do you know him? Would you like to know him? Then let me tell you (or remind you) and give you hope. 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” (Heb. 11:1). What is the unseen? I believe in this day and age, many are apt to believe in the supernatural to the degree that good and evil exist in an invisible realm that we see play out in our physical world. Sorry atheists. It was a golden age under Hitchens, Dawkins, and the flying spaghetti monster, but for now, society has moved away from a materialistic worldview to a spiritual one. I do miss those gospel convos with y’all though—they were some of my faves! 

But thanks be to God that he has fashioned this broken, sin-filled, hate-fueled, devil-ruled world to be able to have light amongst the darkness.

“For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible,” (Heb. 11:2-3). The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one true, triune God, is the unseen that gives us the hope we all long for in our souls. Satan and his demon crew are the unseen that work tirelessly, timelessly like a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5) looking for and creating any opportunity to deceive and devour all that God has created in the seen world. If they could do it, they would take down God himself! Yet we all know how that turned out in the beginning (Isa. 14, Rev. 12), and how it will end (Rev. 22). 

Whether you know him or not, or seek to know him or not, God is here. Your spirit bears witness to his existence (Rom. 1) amongst all the competing ideologies and little-g gods for your heart—you know. You know who the true God is already. He is your creator (Gen. 1). He is the Father of lights (Jas. 1) where every unseen hope in this world comes from. Times are bleak and getting darker, but he says to you, “‘Come now let us reason together … Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool,’” (Isa. 1:18). This was Charlie’s main message. 

Our Father is always about his business in the brilliant, eternal splendor of light, dispelling every darkness in existence—seen and unseen. He was there from the start, because He’s always existed. We live and struggle day by day in the foreboding darkness that cloaks this world like a thick, heavy blanket of humidity in the South—you southerners know lol. 

But every time God inserts a light like Charlie or any display of his nature, beauty and truth, it props up that ever-dripping blanket until the “day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,” (2 Pet. 1:19). Until the day he vanquishes that darkness for good, slicing it right down the middle like the veil in the temple (Mat. 27) after Jesus’ death. His death was the darkest three days in history, followed by the brightest hope of the world, for Charlie, his family, and you—his resurrection (Lk. 24). This event was the perfect sacrifice for mankind’s sins to defeat the consequences of sin that leads to physical and spiritual death. 

It may not be today, my friend, but we wait for hope with patience as Hebrews says. However, today God is alive and well, acting on behalf of his angels and the hearts of men who he will forever change to glorify himself and serve him forever. If you want his light, it is here at this very moment. If you want satan’s darkness, it is also here at this very moment. The narrow and broad roads are set before you. Which will you choose right now and for the rest of your days? It’s dark out there and will keep getting darker, but darkness and death have an expiration date. I will continue to mourn Charlie and the loss of his light in this world, especially as his anniversary approaches, but not without hope.