Charlie Kirk's Assassination--What Use Was Prayer?

 Today Charlie Kirk, a conservative "firebrand" and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a single bullet at a university campus in Utah. I don't listen to much news, mostly notice headlines and read a few articles a week, so to be honest, I didn't at first know who my sister was talking about when she sent a message about Charlie getting shot.  Seeing photos later, I recognized Kirk, but I hadn't really listened to him very often. By the end of the day, though, he was a household name. 

At first it was hoped he might make it, though he was described as critical. Thousands, perhaps millions of prayers must have winged heavenward this afternoon as people waited for news.  

"Please help him be okay." 

 

He was not okay. He died. 

On Crystal's phone, as she fried potatoes and ground bison and garden vegetables for supper, we watched Megan Kelly and Glenn Beck talking about the shooting, both of them crying. Glenn bawled unashamedly.

I had never seen commentators bawling without even trying to cover up. I had never seen a man weep like that on the news. And that was before the announcement came from Deseret news that Charlie had not made it.

So what use are our prayers?  

 

Some nights recently when I couldn't get to sleep, I'd lie in bed praying. I'd fold my hands and let my body language say words I wasn't coming up with in my mind. But then in the last few days, I've been learning to not fold my hands, but hold them. 

Hold them open to the Father, Who knows what is best. 

Hold them open in surrender.  

Hold them open to receive peace. 

In most areas of life, Greg Feulner wrote in the Samaritan Ministries newsletter this month, we do things ourselves. If we are hungry, we make a meal. If we don't want a messy house, we clean it. If we need to write an email, we sit down at the computer and type away. 

"But in prayer," Greg wrote, "rather than exercising control, we surrender our control."

 

 There it was again--just what God was showing me--changing my clenched hands into open ones.

Releasing the hands that were balled into a fist--and holding them open and empty before God.  

"Prayer is our acknowledgement of our humanness, of our total dependency on the Giver of life.

In prayer, we come before the throne empty-handed, seeking Him...."

Today thousands came empty-handed to our Father. Were our hands balled into a fist, or were they open and surrendered?

What if, like me, more people will hear about what Charlie stood for because of his death than because of his life? 

What if God will work more good from Charlie's death than his life?

What if others will choose to follow in his footsteps and speak up for truth not only on university campuses but all sorts of places?

What if we must look to God instead of to Charlie Kirk now for truth and right answers? 

What if, in other areas of our lives, we held our hands open to our Father instead of raising a clenched fist? 

What if, in releasing control to God, He gives us in return His peace?