Hey guys <3

I know I haven’t gotten a blog post out in a month, and I’m sorry 😅 I’ve just been juggling a lot and while I’ve had ideas for blog posts, I haven’t been able to finish any (and I don’t want to publish something that’s not as high-quality as I know I can make it).

But that was before the events of this past week.

Our country has now devolved into a place where thousands of evil people want other individuals killed for their political and spiritual beliefs. They celebrate that a godly husband, father and entrepreneur was gunned down in front of thousands of college students, purely because of what he believed in. And for people my age, who are living through these tragedies right as we move into adulthood, we now have a lot of choices to make.

Every single one of us must decide what we believe, and why we believe it. What we believe about the world, about God, about our country, and our own values. We have to decide what the highest priorities in our life are. We have to decide whether we will or will not stand by our convictions and be willing to do whatever it takes in defense of those convictions.

A lot of people in this country are familiar with Christianity and the Bible, but so few of them actually know what the Bible teaches, and even fewer live their lives in light of what God commands.

I refuse to be one of those people.

I want to be the kind of person that when I die, the worst thing people can say about me is that they disagreed with me. I want to be the kind of person that lives a consistent, faithful, God-honoring life that makes evil people rejoice when I’m no longer on this earth. In the words of Allie Beth Stuckey,

“What an incredible honor. May we all, when we die, make the demons rejoice. May we all be so courageous, so bold, so effective, so faithful, so obedient to the Lord, so relentless in the pursuit of His glory that when we die all of God’s enemies cheer. May they lament every breath we take, may they be enraged every morning that our feet hit the floor, may they wince at every word we say.”

Not all of us are called to travel the world speaking and debating, or to start a large organization like Charlie did. But that doesn’t mean our lives don’t have an impact.

The last time I went to work, a new coworker who I’d never met before said that she couldn’t imagine me getting angry at anything ever because I just seemed so kind.

It was one of the greatest compliments (and motivation) someone’s ever given me.

None of us get to choose the time period or family we’re born into, but we can all choose what kind of people we are and what our legacies will be. It starts in the small things — choosing to believe the best about people, taking the time to listen to how someone’s week went, being focused at work instead of getting distracted or being lazy.

Charlie’s enemies are falsely labeling him, and his followers, as an extremist and someone who spewed hate speech. But those accusations remind me of the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter from Birmingham Jail.

“Now [we are] being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized. But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love? — ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’ Was not Amos an extremist for justice? — ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.‘

Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? — ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’ Was not Martin Luther an extremist? — ‘Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.’ Was not John Bunyan an extremist? — ‘I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.’ Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? — ‘This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.’ Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? — ‘We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all men are created equal.‘

So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?”

Let them call us extremists if they want. But let it be because we are extremists for love, for justice, for righteousness, for our families, for our beautiful country, and ultimately for the glory of God.

“For God is with the generation of the righteous… the LORD is his refuge.” (Psalm 14:5-6