1819 News, by Annie Holmquist: In the days since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the internet has been filled with clips and quotes of him talking about family, white privilege, immigration, and a whole host of other issues.
Yet one that’s been circulating has particularly impressed me, thanks to the content and its uniqueness in our world today. That clip is one in which Kirk and his wife Erika talk about how they deliberately set aside one day a week for a sabbath rest.
“I think that to our own detriment and to our own failure we as Christians have decided to cast away resting on one of the seven days,” Kirk said. “God rested after creation, that comes before the Hebrews, it comes even before the creation of the modern world and civilization as we know it. And it says very, very clearly in the Scriptures for six days you shall work and the seventh day you shall rest.”
In a separate video Kirk explained how he ignored the sabbath concept for many years, thinking that he didn’t need to practice it and that it didn’t apply to him. But when in a state of exhaustion in 2021, several friends began encouraging him to consider implementing a set day of rest into his week. That choice made all the difference, Kirk said:
God rested after creation, that comes before the Hebrews, it comes even before the creation of the modern world and civilization as we know it. And it says very, very clearly in the Scriptures for six days you shall work and the seventh day you shall rest. If you are feeling overrun by society, you might be feeling depressed or anxious, here’s this one way that you might be able to improve. Turn your phone off for one day. No contact, no social media, no work. Your mental health will improve dramatically. That is a day to go be with God, to read your Bible, and be out of the busyness and the hurriedness and the anger and the noise of this world. Go back to God’s natural rhythm and it’s made our family much tighter knit. And I could be traveling for five or six days, but if I at least get one good sabbath with my family, it charges all back up.
Kirk’s wife Erika confirms the positive effect it had on his life and the life of their family:
As the wife, I have seen it transform him in a way that is so powerful that when he turns his phone off and it goes in that drawer and he – and I know that it’s, you know, he’s all on for the family. There [are] no distractions, and he finally gets to reset his brain. He finally gets to breathe. And as a wife, there is nothing more precious than my husband’s sanity when it comes to the echo chamber and everything that he’s dealing with in his world. So I have seen it change him and impact our family in one of the most beautiful ways.
In the wake of Kirk’s assassination, many people are looking for ways they can follow in his footsteps, make a difference, and stand up to those who wanted his message silenced. Adopting a sabbath rest seems like one simple way to start.
How?
Do as Kirk says. Pick a day – Sunday is a logical choice – and turn off your phone. Turn off your computer. If they’re off, you don’t have to reply to that text or email – they will be there Monday morning when you get up. You won’t have to see headlines, hear the political vitriol, or watch debates on X or the Sunday talk shows – they’ll be there Monday morning, summarized nicely in short videos, saving you loads of time weeding through all the garbage.
Instead, do as Kirk suggested. Go to church – morning and evening if possible. Fellowship with others – your family, relatives, or friends – having deep conversations without the aid of a phone. Write by hand – a physical letter, such as a thank-you note or birthday card, or record some items of gratitude in a journal. Read – Scripture, as Charlie suggested, or a good old-fashioned book. Take a walk, unhurried, enjoying the beauties of nature. Cook a real meal – not just some quick throw-together food out of a box or the freezer – and eat it unhurried.
At the same time, use your sabbath rest to foster rest in others. Don’t use the day to go shopping or eat out at a restaurant. Those who work at such places need a day of rest, too, and by frequenting them on Sunday, we only make it more difficult for them to obtain that rest. The same goes for other places of work – the less we as employers or employees seek to do work on our day of rest, reply to work emails, or ask our fellow comrades to do so, the more they are able to also rest.
As American author Wendell Berry once wrote:
The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.
Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.
Charlie Kirk learned the truth of those words in his last few years on earth. Would that we learn the same.
Our Comment:
Will the debate on the Sunday vs. the seventh day Sabbath be taken to a new level because of Charlie Kirk’s conviction? Will God have to find alternative resources to get His message on the seventh day Sabbath if His own people are not deeply engaged in proclaiming it?
Prophetic Link:
“As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: “Show us from the word of God our error”—the same plea that was made by Luther under similar circumstances. Those who are arraigned before the courts make a strong vindication of the truth, and some who hear them are led to take their stand to keep all the commandments of God. Thus light will be brought before thousands who otherwise would know nothing of these truths.” Great Controversy, 607.1