Why?

So much tragedy. This summer we felt the tragedy when a flood ripped through central Texas killing 135 people, including 27 young girls and counselors who were attending a Christian camp. Green ribbons still adorn many of the trees in our community as a memorial to them. And now, a righteous Christian man like Charlie Kirk is gunned down in cold blood. When these types of tragedies happen to these types of people, we are tempted to start questioning God. Why would God allow these things to happen? Why would God allow these tragic deaths to people who truly loved Him, who were acting on His behalf? Why would God allow them to die? Shouldn’t God have protected the people who were doing his work and professing his greatness and loving him? Shouldn’t they be shielded from natural disasters, and evil gunman? It doesn’t make any sense that God allowed these things to happen to these people – his people.

The answer is very simple. You don’t get a cloak of protection the moment you become a Christian. It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way on purpose. If becoming a Christian suddenly made you immune to tragedy, people would become Christians not because they loved Jesus and his teachings, but rather for the protection. God allows for the lives of the faithful to be hard so their faith will be true. It’s easy to be an atheist. They believe in nothing. Their morality is grounded in nothing. It is solely a reflection of the self. Being a Christian is hard. Christians do not get to change the morality to suit their wants and desires, Christian morality changes the self. It separates the self from the wants and desires of the world.

As a Christian, you do not get physical protection from the evils in this temporary world, you get spiritual protection from the evils of your sinful nature for eternity. Charlie’s body was not protected from the ravages of that bullet, but his soul is protected from the ravages of eternal damnation. In the end, our existence is not about our brief time in this world, it is about our eternity beyond this world.

The worst tragedy in the history of the world was the murder of the son of God; the greatest event in the history of the world was the death of the son of God. It’s contradictory, but it’s true. Jesus’ death opened the door of salvation to the entire world. God has the ability to turn our worst tragedies into our greatest triumphs. We do not understand it and how it works, and it is ridiculously arrogant to think that we could understand how the creator of the universe works. Proverbs tells us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

We have no way of computing how the decisions, the actions, the events in the lives of 8 billion people across the globe interact and affect the lives of the other 8 billion people, but God does. Our limited minds and our narrow perspectives are incapable of understanding how everything fits together. What doesn’t make sense or seems unjust in our little world to our little minds, makes perfect sense and is unassailable justice from the perspective and the mind of the creator of the universe.

Since Wednesday, Turning Point USA, has received over 32,000 new requests to start new chapters. TPUSA currently has 3,500 total chapters – 900 college chapters and 1,200 high school chapters. Maybe that was the reason why God allowed this to happen to such a good man. I don’t know, and it would be pure speculation to claim that is the reason for his death. What I do know is that it wasn’t just his death that has led to this surge in interest in his movement, it was the way he lived his life. He was one of the most courageous witnesses for God. And that means everything.

At some point, Charlie Kirk’s body was going to die, whether it was last Wednesday or 50 years from now, but his soul is going to continue on for eternity, and where his soul resides in eternity is infinitely more important than how long his body lives in this world. And that is a message that is easy to forget when we become ensnared in the workings of this world, when we become filled with anger and hate over an evil act of violence, when tragedy causes us to question the wisdom and justice of God. The world is not our destiny; it's temporary, it’s fleeting. We cannot be tethered to this world and the things of it. Our destiny is so much greater than that. Charlie knew this, and that is why he was unafraid to speak the truth knowing full well of the physical dangers of doing so because he knew his soul was safe and secure. He was not clinging to this world. Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”(Matt 16:25) Charlie lost his life for Jesus’ sake, and in doing so, he found it.

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.