Charlie Kirk is assassinated.
A 16-year-old in Evergreen, Colorado, shoots fellow students at his high school and then himself.
Russian drones are shot down over Poland.
Conflict escalates in Israel and Gaza.
This week’s news cycle has been a blow to the solar plexus of the world — and specifically to the next generation.
My 20-year-old daughter, Kailey, called me after she heard about Charlie Kirk’s murder and the high school shooting that took place just a half-hour from her university campus. With a quivering voice, she asked me, “What do I tell my discipleship group in light of what happened in the news today?”
Kailey asked out loud what many young people are whispering in the secret sanctuary of their nervous hearts:
What do we say?
In one sense, there’s not a lot we can say. Sometimes silence is the best sermon.
But in another sense, there’s a lot we can say.
Hope in a broken world
We must remind our Christian young people that we live in a broken world, pointing them to Jesus’s words in John 16:33:
‘In this world you will have trouble.’
But we must also remind them that there will be a day where death itself will die. I’m reminded of what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Young people who know Jesus as their Savior must be reminded that they need not fear death. The writer of Hebrews said of Jesus:
He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14–15
Jesus’s death on the cross and subsequent resurrection from the dead crushed the power of Satan once and for all. We who believe that Jesus died in our place for our sin have had our fear of death destroyed once and for all.
Living with holy boldness
As I reminded my daughter, for those of us who are believers, the worst thing that could happen to us is also the best thing that could happen to us. For us, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (see 2 Corinthians 5:8).
Thank God for our sure hope of Heaven through Jesus Christ!
We need to help our Christian youth live in holy, humble boldness — not afraid to die, not afraid to live, not afraid of anything — because of Jesus.
For young people who are not yet Christians, this is a perfect (although painful) time to point them to the hope that is found only in Jesus.
We can also remind all young people that living with holy boldness should never involve taking revenge. Speaking the truth in love is a proper personal response to evil or tragedy or beliefs you find offensive — violence is not. God has promised that He will give wrongdoers the justice they deserve, so we don’t need to take it into our own hands personally.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. Romans 12:19
A call to share hope
Challenge teens to take this opportunity to point their peers to Jesus. The world is desperately searching for answers that politicians, programs, and philosophies cannot provide. Every headline screams uncertainty, but the Gospel shouts peace, hope, and eternal security.
In a world gone mad, there is hope in Christ. He is not shaken by world events, nor is His Kingdom in jeopardy. Now, in the midst of the madness, is the time to share it with everyone.
Remind your young people: They aren’t just consumers of the news — they are carriers of the Good News. They don’t need to have all the answers, but they can point their peers to the One who is the answer, Jesus Christ.
