It’s been almost two months since Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was killed by a radical assassin at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. In the weeks following his tragic death, Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, has made a few select public appearances – including her first since her husband’s death on a college campus last week at Ole Miss.
Returning to an academic venue was a “spiritual reclaiming of territory,” Kirk told students. “And the more that I am coming to grips with the permanency of this nightmare, the more that I am starting to realize and witness that the enemy, he doesn’t want you.”
“He wants your territory. He wants your influence. And I could just hear Charlie in my heart. I could just hear him say, ‘Go reclaim that territory … the battles that God’s love conquers.’ And that’s why I’m here today,” she continued.
College campuses have long been a hotbed for the robust exchange of ideas. Often monopolized beginning in the 1960s by liberal activists eager to launch a social revolution on various fronts, conservative groups like TPUSA and the Young America’s Foundation have enjoyed a growing presence at both high school and colleges across the country.
Appearing alongside Vice President JD Vance last week, Erika Kirk encouraged the thousands of students in attendance to “earn” their voice. “You are the courageous generation,” she told them.
Choking back tears, Erika shared a moving story about sleeping on her late husband’s side of the bed and waking up to see a sign on a bookshelf that he had put there: “They will be known by the boldness of their faith.”
Luke wrote in Acts,
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Nonbelievers watch and study Christians. While some may be looking for hypocrisy, it’s the faithful and bold servant whose strong witness can leave them hungry to learn more about the Jesus we worship.
Erika Kirk also shared that she found three questions on Charlie’s desk at home. They were in his handwriting and they were questions he asked himself every day:
- What is something I can do for someone today?
- What is something I can do to add value to the world today?
- How can I honor God today?”
“Those were his action points for courage,” Erika said. “Ask yourself those questions every day, and I promise you, you will get courage. What death amplifies even more is that you only get one life. So live like it matters.”
She then urged the crowd at Ole Miss,
“Love your family fearlessly. Love your spouse fearlessly. Love this country. Defend her and serve our God. And don’t think that it’s someone else’s role to do it. You do it.”
Christians who have passed from this world to the next can still influence us by their memory and sometimes, with the words they leave behind. Charlie’s Kirk’s three questions are biblical, practical, convictional, and timeless. How we answer them will impact how we live – and how we serve the Lord and those we’re privileged to cross paths with each and every day.
Image from Getty.
