I came across this poem the other day, and it may be helpful to you in a time of grief.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. This is the third time I've recorded, and I've never, I've never taken two takes on this podcast. This is the third time I've had to do a take here. I just recorded this episode reading a poem that I thought would be helpful to a lot of different people in a lot of different circumstances. Whether you've experienced a horrible loss in your life, I think about this from the perspective of Charlie's parents.
I think about this from his wife's, his wife, his children's perspective one day, Charlie Kirk, of course. We have this memorial service coming up on Sunday, and I pray that it is beautiful. I pray that God speaks through everyone who is speaking there and that the people there who are speaking say what God wants them to say and what this country needs to hear. I pray it sparks a revival. I pray this Sunday is a beautiful event and good. Before we read this poem, I want to play this clip here of A man, Frank Turek.
I didn't know this, but Frank Turek is the author of a book that someone gave me that early in my becoming a Christian called, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. It's my favorite apologetics book I ever read. It's the first one I ever read. And it's amazing. And I've given it to a lot of people. And it's amazing book.
I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. And he was amazing friends with Charlie Kirk. He was actually standing right next to Charlie Kirk when he got shot. He was the man in the white hat who people are like, oh, he's making a hand signal to. No, this is Frank Turek. He's an amazing man and apologetics assist.
And as you hear here, a wonderful father, like figure to Charlie Kirk. I want to play what he said first about Charlie's final moments and then go into this poem.
Now, Here's what Erica wants me to relate on Sunday. This is going to be the hard part, but maybe also the comforting part. Charlie Kirk was literally like a son to me. I have three sons. He was like my fourth son. My three sons are a little bit older than Charlie. He was like my fourth son.
So when he was hit, if your son got hit, what would you do? What would you do? I got in the car. Because if there was any way I could save him, I had to do something. I couldn't just take him. You guys got it.
So I They got him into the side of the car. It was an SUV. It was the SUV we took over. And I'm on one side, and there's actually some video. There's somebody who's taking video of this. I'm on one side of the car, the right side, and they're getting Charlie in.
So I run over to the other side, but the guy who was dragging him in is now blocking that entrance. So at that point, I run around to the back. I pop the top, the back gate open, and I jump in the back. The car lurches forward. Apparently, somebody jumped in the car. So the car lurches forward.
So I almost fall out of the car. or the SUV. Then I grabbed the thing and close it. And there's five of us in the car now. Justin is driving. Dan is up front with the GPS.
Rick has got him. Rick's on my left. And Brian is there. And I'm coming over the back seat. And Charlie's laid out in front, just right in front of me. And Charlie's so tall, we can't close the door.
We drove four miles, I don't know, it's four something miles, all the way to the hospital with the door open. To this day, I don't know how Brian stayed in the car because we're just go, go, go.
go, go.
We're trying to stop the bleeding, you saw it. And I'm yelling, come on, Charlie, come on, come on. Meanwhile, my phone is still on. My son and daughter -in -law are hearing this whole thing. And his security team, again, Justin, Dan, Brian, and Rick, they love Charlie, but they're much cooler than I. I mean, they're just carrying out, they're calmly, but they're swiftly doing exactly what they were trained to do.
Rick starts praying out loud. I'm praying out loud. We're yelling, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. My son's hearing all this, and we're doing the best we can to navigate traffic. This is not a highway, we're on surface streets. And suddenly there's an ambulance coming toward us.
And there was conversation in the car, should we stop? We're like, no, no, just keep going, just keep going. The doctor later said that was the right thing to do. Ambulance goes by us. We're still heading to the hospital trying to get there. At one point, somebody says, let's get there in one piece because we're just we're cutting through intersections.
You know, we're just beeping the horn. This is not an emergency vehicle. There's no there's no lights. There's none of this. And I go, we've got to start CPR. So I try and start that.
Now, he wasn't there.
His eyes were fixed. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking past me right into eternity. He was with Jesus already. He was killed instantly and felt absolutely no pain. That's what I was told later.
But of course, we had to try. By the way, there was just nothing, nothing any of us could do about it. We were giving him CPR, but nothing was happening. It wasn't like if we had better first aid or we had better medical facilities or we're faster to the hospital, we could have saved him. We couldn't. So if that's any comfort at all, Charlie didn't suffer.
He was gone. He was with Jesus absent from the body present with the Lord. That's where he was. Now it is true. When we got to the hospital, And they started working on him right away. They did get a pulse back.
And so Rick and I were just everyone's praying. We're just praying for a miracle. We had a we had a small sliver of hope. And the doctor later said that we got a pulse because Charlie was a very healthy man. But the shot was catastrophic. So 20 or 30 minutes later, the surgeon came out and said he was dead.
Can't wait to hear what he's going to say on Sunday. Now I want to play this poem that I already recorded and it's about heaven. So I've recorded this poem and then right afterwards, my producer sent me this, that clip you just heard right there. And I was like, Oh, I got it. I got to put this in the beginning. So here is a poem about heaven.
It's a poem by John Pierpont. He's a poet 150 years ago or so. It's called My Child. He says, I cannot make him dead. His fair sunshiny head is ever bounding round my study chair. He's always running around me.
Yet, when my eyes now dim with tears, I turn to him. The vision vanishes. He's not there. I walk my parlor floor, and through the open door, I hear a footfall on the chamber stair.
I hear him.
I'm stepping towards the hall to give the boy a call, and then bethink me that he's not there. I tread the crowded street. A satcheled lad I meet, with the same beaming eyes and colored hair. And as he's running by, I follow him with my eye, scarcely believing that he's not there. I know, I know, his face is hid. Under the coffin lid.
Closed are his eyes. Cold is his forehead fair. My hand that marble felt. O 'er it in prayer I knelt. Yet my heart whispers that he's not there. Quick pause, I'm halfway through.
Nothing's really been said. I haven't heard anything said about Charlie Kirk's parents. So they're thinking that of their child. They have their emotions. This is from Erica's perspective, thinking of her children that now don't have a dad. And you've gone through heartache.
This may be super relevant to your life right now as well and maybe what you need to hear. The poet says, I cannot make him dead when passing by the bed. So long watched over with parental care, my spirit and my eye seek it inquiringly before the thought comes that he is not there. When at the cool gray break of day from sleep I wake with my first breathing of the morning air, my soul up with joy to him who gave my boy then comes the sad thought that he is not there oh my goodness I don't know which of these is more heartbreaking when at the day's calm close before we seek repose I'm with his mother offering up our prayer whatever I may be saying I am in spirit praying for our boy's spirit though he's not there not there where then is he can we please have a turn in this poem not there where then is he The form I used to see was but the raiment that he used to wear. Clothes, they're just clothes.
Raiment's just clothing. So the form, the thing that I see that I can't stop seeing running around, jump around me, climb up the stairs, whatever. The thing I can't not see, the thing I can't unsee is just clothes that he used to wear. The grave that now doth press upon that cast off dress is but his wardrobe locked. He is not there. He lives.
In all the past he lives, in all my memories, nor to the last of seeing him again will I despair. In dreams I see him now, and on his angel brow I see it written, thou shalt see me there. Yes, we all live to God. Father, thy chastening rod, so help us, thine afflicted ones, help us to bear that in the spirit land, meeting at thy right hand, t 'will be our heaven to find that he is there. John Pierpont. my child, I can't wait to go to heaven one day too.
MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website MikeSlater .