The One Year Anniversary of the Murder of Charlie Kirk

One year ago today, Charlie Kirk was killed.

September 10, 2025, is a day many of us will not forget. A husband. A father. A friend. A leader. A man willing to publicly defend what he believed was taken from his family and from this world far too soon.

Today, one year later, I don’t simply want to remember how Charlie died.

I want to remember how he lived.

A Life Built Around Conviction

To me, Charlie represented something increasingly uncommon: conviction.

He believed truth mattered. He believed reality mattered. And he was willing to stand in front of people who strongly disagreed with him and have the conversation.

That doesn’t mean everyone agreed with Charlie.

Clearly, they didn’t.

But a healthy society cannot require agreement before allowing someone to speak.

We need people willing to listen. We need people willing to reason together. And we need people willing to say what they believe is true while remembering the humanity of the person standing across from them.

There is an important biblical principle that has continually come to mind when I think about that: speaking the truth in love.

We need both.

Truth without love can become harsh.

Love without truth can become hollow.

We need the courage to hold the two together.

Faith, Family, and Community Still Matter

There are many things people will remember about Charlie Kirk.

For me, three stand out: faith, family, and community.

He spoke openly about his Christian faith. He spoke about the importance of marriage and family. And he spent much of his adult life building an organization and a community around ideas he believed mattered.

Those things are worth reflecting on because they raise a much more personal question:

What are we building our own lives around?

It is easy to talk about our values.

It is much harder to structure our lives around them.

Do the people closest to us know that they matter?

Are we investing in our marriages?

Are we present with our children?

Are we serving our communities?

Are we willing to stand for what we believe even when doing so costs us something?

Legacy isn’t primarily built through what we say we value.

It is built through what we repeatedly choose to live.

Remembering Should Lead to Imitation

There is a difference between admiration and imitation.

We can admire someone’s courage without becoming more courageous.

We can admire someone’s devotion to family without becoming better husbands and fathers.

We can admire someone’s faith without becoming more faithful ourselves.

We can admire someone’s willingness to speak without becoming willing to speak ourselves.

If Charlie’s life meant something to us, then remembrance shouldn’t stop with a photograph, a quote, or a social media post.

The better tribute is imitation.

Love your spouse well.

Be present with your children.

Know what you believe and why you believe it.

Tell the truth.

Treat the person who disagrees with you as a human being made in the image of God.

Open your home.

Serve your neighbor.

Build something worthwhile.

Invest in the people around you.

And don’t allow fear to dictate what you are willing to say or do.

Political Violence Cannot Become Normal

There is also something larger that should be said on an anniversary like this.

We cannot become comfortable with political violence.

A country built around freedom of speech and the exchange of ideas must be able to tolerate serious disagreement without hatred becoming vigilante violence.

We should be able to argue passionately.

We should be able to challenge one another.

We should be able to say, “I think you’re wrong,” and then continue living alongside one another as neighbors.

Taking someone’s life because of their ideas is not an answer to those ideas.

It is an attack on the very possibility of peaceful disagreement.

One Year Later

One year later, Charlie Kirk’s absence is undoubtedly felt most deeply by the people who knew and loved him personally, especially his family.

That deserves to be remembered.

But for those of us watching from farther away, today presents another question:

What will we do with the years we have been given?

None of us knows how many there will be.

So build your life intentionally.

Hold tightly to your faith.

Love your family with excellence.

Serve your community.

Pursue truth.

Speak it with love.

Have the courage to live according to your convictions.

And leave behind a legacy worth imitating.

One year later, may we remember Charlie Kirk not simply for the way his life ended, but for the convictions he sought to live by.

May his legacy continue through people willing to do the same.