Image via Maxim Elramsisy / Shutterstock.
On The Patrick Madrid Show, Patrick opens up about the heartbreaking assassination of Charlie Kirk and the deep sense of loss felt by his family, friends, and so many Americans who admired his courage. He shares his own meditation – borrowing the style of a reflection once written by an Italian actor about his own unborn son – laying out what he “would have liked” Charlie to experience if his life hadn’t been cut short.
I Would Have Liked Charlie to Have Those Years
by Patrick Madrid
Charlie Kirk should have had decades still ahead of him. He should have been
given the time to keep sharpening his voice, to build up the next generation with
truth, and to keep defending the values he believed in. Instead, his life was cut
short by an assassin’s bullet.
And so, I find myself saying and praying what I would have liked.
I would have liked to hear Charlie grow even stronger in convincing people of the
truth.
I would have liked his powerful intellectual and rhetorical gifts to have matured
into something even stronger than what we had already seen. He was only
beginning to reach his stride as a commentator and cultural leader, and I would
have liked to see how far he could have gone in the service of the truth.
I would have liked him to be steady at his wife and family’s side through every
storm. He was a young man, with small children at home and so much more to
live for.
I would have liked him to live to see those children grow tall, to walk with them
into adulthood, and to bless them on their wedding days.
I would have liked him and his wife Erika to grow old together, to enjoy the
sweetness of a long and happy marriage.
I would have liked him to live long enough to hold more children in his arms, if
God had granted them, and then to see grandchildren playing at his feet. The
beauty of a life fully lived, one that was stolen from him, and from them. And
from us.
I would have liked Charlie Kirk to keep writing, keep speaking, keep encouraging
and building the courage of the young men and women and so many others who
listened to him and looked up to him.
I would have liked him to grow old with a seasoned strength, gray in his hair, and
the wisdom that comes from long experience. A blessing from God.
I would have liked him to keep walking beside this hurting, polarized, uncertain
and faltering country, reminding us that conviction matters more than applause
and that the truth is always more powerful than lies.
I would have liked to watch him carry that conviction across the decades,
becoming not only a voice of youthful fire but of seasoned wisdom for the ages.
And above all, I would have liked Charlie to have lived long enough to see his
family grow in peace – to grow old with the woman he loved, to rejoice in his
children’s lives, and to one day welcome his grandchildren. That is what he was
robbed of. That is what his wife and children were robbed of. And that is what all
of us, who valued his presence in the public square, were robbed of yesterday.
Charlie Kirk had so much more to give. Only God knows how much more.
He should have been allowed to see those years through. Instead, his voice was
silenced suddenly, and we are left with the ache of what might have been and the
memory of who he was and why he did what he did to help others.
I would have liked him to live out the story God had written for him.
I would have liked us all to have been given those years with him among us, years
that were stolen, when Charlie still had so much left to give
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