One of the most common things grieving people hear is, “You’ve got to be strong.” Most of the time, it is spoken with good intentions. People want to encourage us. They want to help us stand when our knees feel weak. But in the tender places of grief, those words can feel like a heavy burden. They can leave a grieving person feeling as though tears are a sign of weakness, questions reflect a lack of faith, and silence is the price of being acceptable to others.

This week we are reeling from another act of deadly violence against a group of people who were targeted specifically because their words and beliefs angered the man who killed them. On Sunday, a man drove his truck through the front door of a Mormon church in Grand Blanc, MI. He opened fire on the people gathered there, then set fire to the building.

I imagine the same is true for many this morning, but I did not sleep much last night. The news of Charlie Kirk’s murder is so disturbing and disgusting that even now my stomach is churning. To be clear, any act of violent death is evil. Yet, something about Mr. Kirk’s death feels different, because it was clearly a deliberate attack on him, almost certainly because of his beliefs and convictions. He was killed because someone did not like what he was saying. That is heinous and vile and, well, I run out of appropriate descriptive words at this point. 

It doesn’t matter what our political views are, because this is not a political statement. For those of us who follow the Prince of Peace, the attempt on former president Trump’s life should be a call for sorrow, for humility, and even for repentance.

I can distinctly remember where she was standing on the front steps of our home when we took the last photo before heading out to deliver her to college. I can remember the order in which we unloaded her stuff once we got there: clothes, shoes, more clothes, more shoes…

By now many of you have heard of the release of a condemning report which details how the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) failed to respond properly to allegations of sexual abuse by numerous pastors and other church leaders over many years. According to the report, many such allegations were simply ignored, while others…

As I write these words there is still one month to go in this year, and yet already it feels like 2020 has drug on for a decade or longer! This year has brought… Read more →