15 seal jacks i/c 15 harry rockets i/c 15 mountain man pooper i/c Capri lap Side shuffle across parking lot, nur across to the other parking spaces, side shuffle across parking lot, mosey to start 15 seal waves i/c 15 Michael Phelps i/c 30 Moroccan night club i/c 10 hip circles each direction oyo
The Thang
Mosey to corner of building.
20 Mike Tyson sit thru oyo Incline Bolt 45
3rd F The Competitor’s Creed
I am a Christian first and last. I am created in the likeness of God Almighty to bring Him glory. I am a member of Team Jesus Christ. I wear the colors of the cross.
I am a Competitor now and forever. I am made to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed in the arena of competition. I am a Christian Competitor and as such, I face my challenger with the face of Christ.
I do not trust in myself. I do not boast in my abilities or believe in my own strength. I rely solely on the power of God. I compete for the pleasure of my Heavenly Father, the honor of Christ and the reputation of the Holy Spirit.
My attitude on and off the field is above reproach – my conduct beyond criticism. Whether I am preparing, practicing or playing; I submit to God’s authority and those He has put over me. I respect my coaches, officials, teammates and competitors out of respect for the Lord.
My body is the temple of Jesus Christ. I protect it from within and without. Nothing enters my body that does not honor the Living God. My sweat is an offering to my Master. My soreness is a sacrifice to my Savior.
I give my all – all of the time. I do not give up. I do not give in. I do not give out. I am the Lord’s warrior – a competitor by conviction and a disciple of determination. I am confident beyond reason because my confidence lies in Christ. The results of my efforts must result in His glory.
LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN. LET THE GLORY BE GOD’S
Mosey to coupons
10 baby seal waves i/c 15 sprawled Curls w/coupon oyo 10 kneeling squat twist w/coupon oyo 10 blockes 20 Bent over rows 30 urkins
20 hello dolly 10 Freddie mercury 15 gas pumpers Not so easy lazyboy
20 Curls for the girls
Return coupons and mosey the way we came back to the AO
1) Set of Bolt 45’s IC (4 Count) – 15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
The Thang – 12 Days of Christmas Part Threeor Doce Dias de Navidad La Parte Tres. Each exercise was completed and repeated in descending order just as the Twelve days of Christmas Song would be sung. After the Tuck Jump at the end of each evolution Pax completed a Nur across the Fire Department parking lot and a run back before starting the next exercise.
1– Tuck jump
2 – Mountain climbers (4 Count)
3 – Hand release, diamond, wide & ranger merkins
4 – LBC’s (4 Count)
5 – Burpees
6 – Donkey kicks
7 – Iron Mikes
8 – SSH’s (4 Count)
9 – Apolo Ohno’s
10 – Shoulder tap merkins – ATM’s
11 – Full motion squats
12 – Big boy sit-ups
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Prayers were offered for multiple needs within the attending PAX, but please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayers.
One of the amusing sides of Christmas is people shopping in departments they never otherwise shop in – generally clueless. Let me give you an example that I can relate to – men shopping in the ladies clothing department. Oh, we’re a mess. Now, if you need a good laugh; you’re feeling a little down, you ought to go to the ladies garment department somewhere; especially the more personal the item is, the funnier it is to watch men shopping. They’re slightly embarrassed, generally incompetent at what they’re doing, and it’s very important if you’re going to go shopping for a woman during the Christmas season that you get the woman’s size: your wife, your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, or whatever. And you trust that the tags are right, of course, on the size. You know that a small had better be a small, because you don’t know anything. A large had better be a large. Now, you want to know how to sow some confusion and have some fun? (Don’t anybody do this, please.) Imagine if someone snuck into that store late one night and just changed the tags around. Well, people would make a lot of wrong choices, all because the sizes were wrong. Now, that doesn’t happen to clothes, but it does happen to people, and it takes the Christmas Story to straighten out small and large.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “How Christmas Rightsizes the World.”
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 1:52-53. Mary is pregnant; she’s carrying the baby Jesus, and we get a little idea of the insight God has given her as she prays this prayer, what is often called The Magnificat. She says, “God has brought down rulers from their thrones, but He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but He has sent the rich away empty.”
You know, Mary has the right sizes on the right people. She has the smalls on the small, and the bigs on the big. You see, the world would call these the big people – those people who are called rulers and rich. But she says, “the rulers have been brought down. The rich have been sent away empty.” God’s heroes – the people the world calls small. They’re identified as the humble, who He lifts up, and the hungry, who He fills up.
You see, what is a big deal to men is a little deal to God – big deal like money, gifts, title, fame. That’s a little deal to God. Conversely, what’s a little deal to men: “You don’t have much money. You don’t have much influence. Not many people know you. You’re average.” See, that’s a big deal to God. You hear people say all the time, “Well, I’m just a… I’m just a student. I’m just a mother. I’m just a secretary. I’m just a helper. I’m just a Sunday school teacher. I’m just a laborer. It’s just a small church. It’s just a little class. I’m just a choir member.” With God, there are no “just a’s,” not in God’s value system.
Bethlehem, we’re told, was “little among the villages, but out of you (little village) will come the Prince,” Mary, the peasant but the Mother of God’s Son. Shepherds, the outcasts of their society, the first evangelists. I wonder if you have the two qualifications for God’s heroes: humble, which means you are totally depending on the Lord, and hungry, restless to know and serve Him more. God likes to make folks like that big for Him – the humble and the hungry.
Remember to give attention to the people others ignore. They’re the big people to God – children, the poor, the powerless. Oh, by the way, don’t ever call yourself “just a…” again. God does His biggest things through the smallest instruments. Call big what God calls big. Make sure you’ve got the right size.
Warm-a-Rama 17 seal jacks I/c 17 Imperial walkers I/c 17 seal waves I/c 10 hip circles each direction oyo 25 mountain climbers I/c 12 mountain man pooper I/c 25 plank jacks I/c
The Thang Each HIM grabs a coupon
From coupon pile to parking lot Lt. Dan Nur halfway across parking lot Mosey The rest of the way to benvoneto
From to benvoneto to corner 12 blockey broad jump, mosey rest of distance 10 halos each direction Side shuffle facing parking lot back to benvoneto 25 E2K each side Side shuffle facing parking lot back to corner 25 Curls for the girls Screaming lungs to benvoneto 50 ankle taps Mosey to corner 25 skull crushers Karaoke facing parking lot 50 lbcs
3rd F “Getting the Edge” “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” — 1 Corinthians 9:24 Opening Thought Jim Berkman, Salisbury University’s Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach, is the winningest men’s lacrosse coach of all time. His program’s foundation is built on one defining idea: “We are going to out-compete you from the first whistle to the last.” To achieve that level of sustained excellence, Coach Berkman emphasizes “Getting the Edge.” It’s not just about how hard you work during practice, but how committed you are outside of it. The edge comes from the unseen hours — the early mornings, the extra reps, the personal discipline that fuels greatness. Coach Berkman’s players know that when everyone commits to “getting the edge” on their own, the team becomes sharper, stronger, and more competitive together. That’s how practices start to feel like games — because everyone shows up prepared to give their best. Faith Application Now, think about this through the lens of your Christian faith. What if we approached our spiritual life with the same drive to “get the edge”? • Are we putting in the work outside of Sunday morning? • Are we studying God’s Word daily, not just when it’s convenient? • Are we praying regularly, not just when we need something? • Are we training our hearts to respond with grace, truth, and love in every situation? When we do this — when we “get the edge” in our faith — we are better prepared to live boldly for Christ. We become stronger disciples, able to compete for Christ at the highest level when the moment comes to share the gospel or to lead with integrity under pressure. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” — Romans 12:11 “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way.” — 1 Timothy 4:7–8 Just like an athlete who trains beyond practice, our faith requires personal investment. The more time we spend with God in private, the more powerful our witness becomes in public. Reflection Questions • What does “getting the edge” look like in your walk with Christ? • How can you invest in your faith outside of Sunday or team devotionals? • Are there “drills” you can commit to daily — prayer, Scripture reading, journaling, or serving others — that sharpen your spiritual edge?
Karaoke facing parking lot back to the corner
Sumo bolt 45 on decline 6″ apart bolt 45 on incline Return coupons
Number Rama Name Rama COT
5 HIM showed today: Boxcar, Woodstock, Shutter, Semi, FNG ?Buehler?
Warm-a-Rama 15 Seal jacks i/c 15 Seal waves i/c 15 Imperial walkers i/c Capri lap Side shuffle across parking lot, nur to next parking spaces, side shuffle across parking lot, mosey back to start 15 Mountain man pooper i/c 20 Michael Phelps i/c 30 marocan night club i/c
The Thang Each HIM grabs a large coupon and 2 small coupons Tabata 1 minute on 30 sec off
Bolt 45’s IC (4 Count) – 15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
Cherry Pickers – 15 IC
The Thang
Explanation of the Directive God gave Joshua in regard to the wall of Jericho and the number seven. Pax conquered Jericho this gloom in F3 fashion thanks to a phone call from Quattro on December of 2019 planting a seed for the original beatdown on 12/2019 and quoting the verses from Joshua 6:4-5,20-21 New King James Version (NKJV). Round #1 – Karaoke around the circle switching directions at halfway and complete 7 hand release merkins. Round #2 – Nur around the circle and complete 21 LBC’s. Round #3 – side shuffle around the circle switching directions at halfway and complete Aiken legs – 7 squats, 7 box jumps, 7 lunges (10 each Leg), 7 split Jacks (7 each Leg). Round #4 – high knees around the circle and complete ATM’s – 7 alternating “merkin” shoulder taps, 7 tempo merkins, and 7 fast merkins. Round # 5 – Lieutenant Dan around the circle and complete 7 four count mountain climbers. Round #6 – Toy Soldier march around the circle and complete a set of 7’s. 1 big boy to 1 merkin, two big boys to 2 merkins ascending to 7 of each. Round #7 – mosey 7 laps around the circle and complete ascending Burp & Merks up to seven merkins. The twist is we are going to repeat each of the previous exercises before starting the next lap around the circle.
F3 Message – 11/08/25
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayers.
F3 Message 11/08/25
Joshua 6:4-5,20-21 New King James Version (NKJV)
4 And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.” 20 So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
I had just finished speaking. I was talking with two men, and the subject was manhood and what it really means. In the course of our solving many of the world’s problems, I learned that one of the men had a black belt or its equivalent in three different forms of martial arts. I hired him as my bodyguard. Well, almost. The man has the ability to take control of most any hostile situation – except for one. He told me there is only one position in which a person is totally powerless, no matter how strong or how skilled they are: lying face down on the ground. You’re absolutely powerless there.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Power of Powerlessness.”
When Mr. Black Belt told me about the total vulnerability of being face down on the ground, General Joshua flashed into my mind. That’s Joshua as in the Book of Joshua in the Bible. In fact, there’s a wonderful blueprint for winning life’s unwinnable battles in the account of Joshua’s most powerless moment. It’s recorded in Joshua 5, beginning with verse 13, and it’s our word for today from the Word of God.
Joshua is leading the Jews into the Promised Land that God has said He would give to them. But immediately, they come upon this massive, seemingly impregnable city; the walls are looming toward the sky. It’s the world’s oldest city, Jericho. There’s no way Joshua’s going to breach those walls with anything he knows how to do. You know what? You may be facing one of those “Jerichos” in your life right now, where the size of the challenge is a lot greater than the resources you have.
So, this one’s for you. Joshua 5 says, “When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and he saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for His servant?'”
Here’s Joshua, the man who has never lost a battle, going face down on the ground in the most powerless position a man can be in. I don’t think Joshua ever surrendered to anyone. But standing before the Commander of the Army of the Lord, he falls down in total surrender. Most Bible scholars believe this “Commander” is actually the Son of God making one of His pre-Bethlehem appearances in the Old Testament.
Face down before Jesus. Could that be where He wants you right now? Maybe that’s the only way you’re ever going to conquer your Jericho; the only way you’re ever going to have peace. When Joshua surrendered, God gave him the miracle plan that pulverized the walls of Jericho. The issue wasn’t really the conquest of Jericho; it was the conquest of Joshua. The issue in your life really isn’t the conquest of your impossible challenge; it’s the conquest of you. It sometimes takes a “Jericho” to level some of us Joshuas.
It could be that you’ve given Jesus everything: your talent, your time, your money, your service; everything but one thing. Control. It’s still my way, my will, my agenda, my plans, my timing. There’s someone or something that you’re still holding tightly in your hands, and you’re afraid or you’re unwilling to surrender control. And, consequently, your Jerichos will remain standing.
The most powerful position in the world is powerlessness. The secret of peace; the secret of the release of God’s power into your situation is total surrender. At that point, He will commit all His forces to the battles in front of you. To finally surrender is to finally win.
Warm-a-Rama 20 Michael Phelps i/c 10 hip circles each direction oyo 15 seal waves i/c 20 seal jacks i/c 30 marocan night club i/c 10 mountain man pooper i/c
The Thang
Each HIM grabs a large coupon and 2 small coupons
5 halos each direction 10 monkey grabs 10 floundering blocks 10 block cliff hanger 10 trinity 20 press jacks w/coupon 10 squat front raise w/coupon
Lap around parking lot
5 halos w/press each side 10 coupon chops per side 25 bridge chest press 10 trinity 10 backwards lunge to block crusher per side 10 sprawled Curls coupons
3rd F 9 lessons from F3 1. You can go a lot farther with others by your side. 2. Men need challenges to stay sharp mentally, physically, and emotionally. 3. Confidence is built by setting and accomplishing goals. 4. Competition makes us better. 5. Sweat and shared suffering build strong bonds. 6. If you’re not accelerating, you’re decelerating. 7. You’re stronger than you think you are. 8. The COT is great therapy. 9. Friends make life worth living and loving.
Warm-a-Rama 20 Michael Phelps i/c 10 hip circles each direction oyo 15 seal waves i/c 20 seal jacks i/c 30 marocan night club i/c 10 mountain man pooper i/c
The Thang
Each HIM grabs a large coupon and 2 small coupons
5 halos each direction 10 monkey grabs 10 floundering blocks 10 block cliff hanger 10 trinity 20 press jacks w/coupon 10 squat front raise w/coupon
Lap around parking lot
5 halos w/press each side 10 coupon chops per side 25 bridge chest press 10 trinity 10 backwards lunge to block crusher per side 10 sprawled Curls coupons
3rd F 9 lessons from F3 1. You can go a lot farther with others by your side. 2. Men need challenges to stay sharp mentally, physically, and emotionally. 3. Confidence is built by setting and accomplishing goals. 4. Competition makes us better. 5. Sweat and shared suffering build strong bonds. 6. If you’re not accelerating, you’re decelerating. 7. You’re stronger than you think you are. 8. The COT is great therapy. 9. Friends make life worth living and loving.
Lap around parking lot
10 sprawled Curls coupons 25 Curls for the girls 25 bridge chest press 10 trinity Toy soldier set 50 lbcs 25 E2K per side 15 big boys
Pax: Chattahoochee, Fireplex, Probe, Streudel, Toy Soldier
QIC: Fireplex
Warm up
SSH – 20 IC
Plank Jacks – 20 IC
Cherry Pickers – 15 IC
Bolt 45’s IC (4 Count) – 15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
Windmills – 15 IC
Hydraulic Squats – 10 IC (6 Count)
The Thang
Mosey to Park Pavilion.
Each Pax completed Aiken legs – 20 squats, 20 box jumps, 20 lunges (10 each Leg), 20 Iron Mikes (10 each Leg). After the completion of each evolution, Pax will take a lap around the pavilion circle. Two full evolutions were completed by each Pax.
Pax Moseyed to the municipal parking lot and completed the Burp & Merk – Burpee with ascending merkins up to 10. Each PAX completed a Bear Crawl to each parking space and completed a Burpee with a hand release merkin. Bear Crawl to the next space and complete a Burpee with two hand release merkins. Continue until completing a Burpee with ten hand release merkins.
A break was taken for the F3 Message before moving on to the next exercise.
Each Pax completed the bottom feeder/deconstructed toy soldier set. Crab walk forward from the Governors Walk to the opposite curb and then crab walk backwards to the Governors Walk and complete 100 LBC’s. Rinse and Repeat but completing 50 E2K’s on each side. After the final crab walk, Pax completed 25 big boy sit-ups. Mosey back to CHOP.
F3 Message – See below
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayer.
My wife always said I usually try to cram in one more thing before I leave for an appointment. No, she was right. Yeah, she’d say that I usually try to make it up on the road, and sometimes I do have to plead guilty I guess. And it usually works okay if the weather’s on my side. And then there are those very rainy days when it’s a little tougher to hurry. You know, you’re zipping down the highway at top speed, and suddenly you feel yourself losing control of the rear wheels. You ever had that happen to you? Yeah, it’s what they call hydroplaning. The water builds up under those tires so that well, you’re suddenly skiing. You’re skimming along on water rather than on the pavement and the rear of your car starts to go somewhere you don’t want it to go. Now, if that’s ever happened to you, you know it is a scary feeling to start hydroplaning because, well, you’re going so fast and you’re starting to start losing control.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “When Things Are Overwhelming.”
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 42. As we read this, the author is hydroplaning. Well, he didn’t have a car, he had a chariot. And I don’t know if chariots hydroplane or not, but things were moving so fast for him, he was beginning to lose control. In fact, listen to some of the descriptions he gives. He says, “My tears have been my food day and night.” Then as you read on later in this very personal Psalm, he uses words like this: “Why are you so downcast oh my soul? Why are you so disturbed within me?” Then he says, “My soul is downcast within me. All Your waves and breakers, Lord, have swept over me.” This guy’s in bad shape!
He says, “Man, things are just totally out of control.” I was there not too long ago feeling this way. I think it was accumulated over a period of several weeks. Challenges had just been getting much bigger than my resources. Personally I felt like my faith was kind of like a fitted sheet on a king sized bed and I couldn’t quite get it over that fourth corner. I couldn’t get it to reach far enough to cover the particular challenges and the pressures that were accumulating. And I’ll be honest with you, I was overwhelmed, I get there sometimes. I was pretty anxious, I was feeling like I would never catch up. And then I wandered into Psalm 42, where I was hit with a very probing question by a man who was feeling things out-of-control like I was. And as it turned out, that question turned out to be the answer.
Here’s our word for today from the Word of God. The question is in Psalm 42:2. It says this: “When can I go and meet with God?” So the writer says, “I’m losing control. It’s bigger than I am. When can I go and meet with God?” You know, just like the writer of that Psalm, I needed to stop the world and get away for 24 hours with my Bible and a notepad and meet with God. And I did.
That’s been repeated many times. Maybe that’s the prescription for you right now. You say, “Well, there’s too much for me to stop right now.” See, that’s why you need to. Set a time to stop. Stand back, and listen to your Lord for an extended, unhurried chunk of time – for hours, not just minutes. Write down what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking as you’re in His presence for that extended time. And ask Him for a fresh look at the people and the pressures so you can see the forest and not just the trees. Ask Him to help you see it through His eyes. Set some priorities while you’re in that away spot. Make plans. Weed out things that can go. You can trust what you get from God when you’re in an extended time in His presence. And those need to be scheduled on a pretty regular basis.
So, if you’re traveling at high speed, you feel yourself losing control, slow down, hit the brakes, carve out time away where your Lord can show you what He wants, and He can have your undivided attention.
The number one question you have to answer right now is this: “When can I go and meet with God?”
Warm-a-Rama 20 Michael Phelps i/c 10 hip circles each direction oyo 15 seal waves i/c 20 seal jacks i/c 30 marocan night club i/c
The Thang
Chappie run (water in mouth) to ball fields. Find stack of coupons. Each HIM grabs 2 coupons.
home plate 10 standing twist with coupon 10 coupon chops per side
Nur w/coupons to first base 10 merkins rows w/2 coupons 10 sprawled Curls coupons 15 knee up to squat jump 10 reverse lunge into knee drive w/coupon 20 iron mikes
Bear crawl w/coupons to second 10 ballistic row per side 10 goblet clusters (squat to overhead press) 10 reverse lunge into knee drive w/coupon
3rd F
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/tVBJH589anv6n7VU/?mibextid=D5vuiz What is your pre game routine?
Crawl bear w/coupons to third 20 press jacks w/coupon 10 squat front raise w/coupon
Nur w/coupons to home plate
Mosey back to AO
Round of Mary
flutter kick, gas pumpers, v ups, 4 count Freddie, and American hammers
Number Rama Name Rama COT
9 HIM showed today; Semi, Probe, Chauffer, Toy Soldier, Fireplex, Quattro, Bunt, Chattahoochee, Motown
Bolt 45’s – IC (4 Count) – 15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
Imperial Walkers – 20 IC
Windmills – 15 IC
Hydraulic Squats – 10 IC (6 Count)
The Thang
Mosey to “Oh Hill No”.
PAX completed B.O.M.B.’s on the Hill. Each PAX completed 25 Burpees, 50 Overhead Claps completed as SSH’s, 75 Merkins, 100 Big Boy Sit-up’s, 125 squats. After each exercise, Pax scaled the Hill in a different manner. After the Burpees, Pax crawl beared up the hill and moseyed down. After the SSH’s, Pax bear crawled up the hill and moseyed down. After the merkins, Pax Nur’d up the hill and moseyed down. After the Big Boy Sit-up’s, Pax took a breather for the F3 message. Once complete all Pax completed the squats and moseyed up and then back down the hill.
I’m writing this on September 11. Twenty-four years ago today, I watched on television as the Twin Towers crumbled to dust. Twenty-four hours ago, I saw the shocking assassination of a hugely popular Gen Z influencer in front of 3,000 people. In both cases, millions were devastated in disbelief and grief. Including reporters, politicians, law enforcement spokesmen – and lots of ordinary folks. And while the scope of the 2001 tragedy was clearly greater, the trauma of yesterday’s assassination hit many young people very personally. Watching the tears of others yesterday, I found myself praying again what I cried out to God 24 years ago. “God, what do You see here?” The answer was the same both times. Souls. Lost souls. Grieving souls. Eternal souls.
I’ve worked with young people my entire adult life. And as years have gone by, I’ve seen many of them become less and less engaged with their world and with current events. Many of them know tons about Taylor Swift’s love life but can’t find Ukraine on a map or tell you the name of the Vice President. But they were drawn to Charlie Kirk, who was dedicated to involving them in major issues of our time. A prime time CNN host said yesterday: “If you don’t know who Charlie Kirk is, ask your teenager or your college student.” Kirk was, in a sense, a generational prophet to many of them. He had over 5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and hundreds of thousands of listeners to his podcast and radio program. Observers characterize many of today’s young people as disconnected. But they connected with Charlie Kirk. To countless millions of young people, he was finally a voice they felt they could trust. Suddenly, he was gone. For me, this isn’t about Charlie Kirk’s politics or culture war perspectives. It is, of course, about his wife Erika and their two children. I know “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18) and she’s clearly expressed her relationship with Him. I pray Jesus will envelope them in His strong and comforting arms.
I do see what God showed me on that dark September 11 years ago. Those souls. The emotional outpouring that floods social media now gives testimony to the deep sense of personal loss so many young people are feeling today. After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, there was a hole in our hearts that none of our usual “go to” answers could fill. So we turned to God. Churches were full. Prayer was everywhere. Many finally opened their hearts to the Savior who died for them and beat death by His Resurrection.
For many contemporary young people, yesterday’s loss has left their own hole in their heart. That’s where it’s about “souls.” This trauma will be, for many, a “turning point.” For some, to anger, retribution, disillusionment, despair. All destinations devoid of hope. Or to Jesus. Whose hope is stronger than death, guaranteed by an empty tomb. We are desperate for a generation that doesn’t carry all the baggage we have or suffer from the angry poison we’ve consumed. A spiritual awakening may well be our only real hope. And our young people may be our only real hope of a better tomorrow. I’m praying the death of a looked-to leader may lead them to the Leader whose life and hope are eternal. Jesus called us in life to tell our world about His unloseable love – and to let them experience that love through us.
At the unforgettable Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, there is a simple but profound exchange between the honor soldier coming on duty and the one leaving. For some 75 years, every guard leaving has said, “Orders remain unchanged.” To which, the new guard salutes and responds, “Orders acknowledged.” Two thousand years ago, Jesus gave a band of disciples His final orders: “You shall be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8).
No matter the loss, no matter the cost. Orders remain unchanged.
