Today has been heavy.

News broke that Charlie Kirk has been shot and killed, and like wildfire the story spread across social media. Within minutes, I watched people retreat into their familiar trenches… some shocked, some celebrating, some mocking, some grieving, some raging. And on top of all of this, there was also a school shooting in Colorado and that story barely even cuts through the violent noise.

Division metastasizes fast when death is involved.

But can we step back for a moment?

Can we breathe?

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Beyond Sides, Beyond Labels

We’ve been trained to think in teams: Left vs. Right. Conservative vs. Progressive. Our side vs. their side. Us vs. Them. But the truth is, those categories are paper-thin compared to the deeper reality of what we are: human beings. Earthlings.  Dust and spirit intertwined.

We are not the country on our birth certificate.

We are not the paycheck we bring home, or the title associated with it.

We are not our political allegiance, or the talking heads we retweet.

We are fragile creatures, vulnerable to sickness, fear, propaganda, violence. And yet we are also capable of great love.

To those who despised Charlie’s ideas: You may feel a sense of relief, or even a grim satisfaction seeing someone you consider harmful silenced. But violence doesn’t purify, it corrodes. It doesn’t make us free, it chains us deeper to fear and hatred. Death doesn’t prove a point, it only reminds us how broken we are. If we celebrate death, we’ve lost sight of the life we claim to defend.

To those who followed Charlie Kirk’s Vision: You may feel attacked, grieving not just a man but what he represented for you. It’s tempting to point fingers and batten down the hatches with hardened defenses and declare this tragedy the fault of “the Left.” But pain is not a weapon. Grief isn’t a political tool. The way forward is not deeper division, but the recognition that life, every life, is sacred. Even if they’re from “Samaria.”

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Today Is a Day to Grieve

Whether you loved or despised Charlie Kirk, a life was cut short. His family grieves. His friends grieve. His opponents, if they’re honest, should grieve too…

Not for his politics, but for the reality of yet another life lost to violence for voicing his opinions.

When death becomes a punchline, we have already chosen division over life.

Choose Life

There’s a verse from Moses in Deuteronomy that won’t leave me alone today:

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
Therefore, choose life.”

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV

To choose life doesn’t mean choosing a political party or defending your tribe. It means choosing compassion over cruelty, empathy over mockery, presence over propaganda. It means refusing to let violence (whether physical or rhetorical) become the currency of our culture.

And Jesus came to show us this very Way. He said he came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Yet so often Christianity misses this, trading the way of love for the way of ideology, the way of division, the way of who’s inand who’s out. Jesus told us to love our enemies, to serve the least, to forgive seventy times seven—and somewhere along the way, many traded that radical way of life for defending sides and drawing lines.

But the way of Jesus has always been the Way of Life. The way of abundant life. The way that pulls us back, again and again, to the Source.

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An Invitation

So here’s my invitation, as much to myself as to anyone else: Get off social media. Turn off the screen. Step outside. Look at the sky. Listen to the trees. Notice the sound of your own breath. Life is still here. It’s still beautiful, and It’s still worth choosing.

Grieve, yes. But don’t weaponize grief.

Mourn, yes. But don’t turn mourning into mockery.

Life is sacred. And in times like these, remembering that might be the most radical act of all.

Memento Mori.

-JD