What Have You in Your Hand?

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I’ve seen many people over the past month—particularly young men of about my age—strive to take up the banner of “I am Charlie Kirk.” Indeed, perhaps you’ve even seen crowds of folks on social media wearing shirts that say this very thing, “I am Charlie Kirk” or “We are Charlie Kirk.” These people have attempted—for the most part sincerely, so far as I can gather—to pick up Charlie’s microphone where he left it in order to promote truth, justice, and Christianity in their own lives and in their own little ways.

Only, there will never be another Charlie Kirk. Not in quite the same way, that is.

While I truly believe that the “I am Charlie Kirk” effect is an overall net positive for social media and the world beyond it, we should ever be aware that there will only ever be one Charlie Kirk—and that’s a good thing. God does not and need not repeat Himself. Charlie ran his race well and faithfully, and though his life was short, we cannot as Christians who trust in a sovereign God say that his life was cut short or too short, for the Lord determined Charlie’s days long before he was born, just as He has ours. We would do well not to question His wisdom.

So, what are we to do?

In C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra, just as Ransom’s battle with the Un-man enters its final stages, he remarks that, “Darkness fell upon the waves as suddenly as if it had been poured out of a bottle.” I love the weight that is carried within that imagery; the sheer immediacy and violent onslaught of the encroaching darkness is nigh palpable. Perhaps such a turn of phrase feels weightier than it otherwise would have because we too, like Ransom, can sense the thickening of the gathering darkness all about us. Charlie’s senseless murder—and the gleeful response of his opponents—was yet another grim evidence of that. Yet there is great hope: for the Light continues to shine in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it (John 1:5).

When the days around us grow evil and dark, it is our duty not to despair but rather to call upon the Lord and ask of Him what work He has for us while we yet tarry here below. Seeing as how I’ve already quoted Lewis, it seems only fair to borrow from Tolkien as well. Early on in The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and Gandalf discuss the burden of having to see to the One Ring’s destruction. “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” says Frodo, at which point the wizard responds:

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Death has dealt some heavy blows this year. It seemed as though the weight of John MacArthur’s passing was just beginning to lift when Charlie got assassinated, only to be swiftly followed by the Lord calling Voddie Baucham home as well. It is in moments such as these—when my understanding is little and my sight dim—that I worship our Lord anew, for He is in complete control and knows what He is doing.

There will never be another Charlie Kirk, just as there will never be another John MacArthur or Voddie Baucham. Those seats are already taken at the Wedding Feast, place card and all. Let us draw inspiration from these faithful men, absolutely, while at the same time not obfuscating the task God has set out before us. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

My dear friend, what will you do with the time and gifts the Lord has given you? To start a podcast or speaking tour like Charlie is beside the point; to go to seminary, pastor a church, or begin a school like MacArthur or Voddie should not be your chief aim either. Rather, aim for faithfulness where the Lord has placed you. That very well may mean that you begin—or faithfully continue—any of the pursuits just listed, but not necessarily. Even if faithfulness in your little part of the world looks similar to the race that Charlie or MacArthur or Voddie ran, I doubt it will look identical.

When Moses stood before the glory of the Lord in the burning bush, he persisted in listing half-hearted excuses for why he could not do the task God was calling him to. Finally, out from the all-consuming inferno of His glory, the Lord asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” Moses looked down and responded, “A staff.” Most of us know what happens next: as a sign, God commands Moses to throw his staff onto the ground and upon doing so the staff transforms into a serpent.

However, what was the initial response of Moses? Upon the staff’s transformation into a serpent, we read that “Moses ran from it” (Exodus 4:3). God then commands Moses to stretch out his hand and pick up the serpent from the tail, at which point it once again became a wooden staff. This was to ensure “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you” (Exodus 4:5).

My dear brother and sister, do not run from that which God has placed in your hand. For, He intends that you use it faithfully for His glory and for the good of all those around you. No one can take the unique place of men like Charlie Kirk, John MacArthur, and Voddie Baucham. God does not expect that we duplicate their race. We can replicate their faithfulness, but never duplicate it. They were Kingdom originals.

God does, however, command that we be faithful with those gifts, talents, and opportunities He has afforded to us as stewards. Draw inspiration and courage from faithful men who finished well,—“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1)—and then look at what God has placed in your hand. To pick up his microphone and wield the banner of “I am Charlie Kirk” is fine and well, but it is infinitely greater still to take up the cross of Christ in those places where He has entrusted you, armed with the glorious truth of His Gospel, to joyfully and sacrificially serve a dark and dying world.

The task may seem impossible, and it often is; that is why we must draw our courage from the Lord. The lot given to Moses by God was a gargantuan one, made possible only by the sure promise of the Lord that He would do the work through Moses, His chosen instrument. Those whom God calls, He also equips for the work.

Draw courage also from His word. In Ephesians 2, we read that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God has prepared the good works to be done by His people long ago in eternity past, we need only be faithful and walk in them.

And so, my friends, I ask again: What have you in your hand? Do not run from it; rather, ask God how He intends for you to use it.

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Photo by Michael Barth, Unsplash