“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” — 2 Corinthians 1:3–4
Brothers and sisters,
When I read the news about Lindsey Graham, I had to sit with it for a moment. The senator from South Carolina had gone home to be with the Lord at the age of 71. The reports said it was sudden — an aortic dissection after he had just returned from Ukraine. One moment he was serving. The next he was gone.
I do not write to you as one who has mastered grief, but as a servant of Christ and a steward of the ministry of presence — a chaplain who walks with the broken in workplaces, in prisons, and among families who mourn. And I urge you, by the mercies of God: do not be conformed to this age in the hour of death (Romans 12:1–2). Let your mind be renewed. Let your walk be worthy of the calling with which you were called (Ephesians 4:1).
I Do Not Want You to Be Unaware
In the hours after the news broke, I saw posts celebrating a man’s death because of policy disagreements. Some came from people who bear the name of Christ. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so among us.
Scripture leaves us no room for gloating. “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Proverbs 24:17). The Lord Himself declares, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). If God does not celebrate death, how shall we — who have been shown mercy in Christ — celebrate the death of one made in God’s image, for whom Christ died?
I did not agree with every position Senator Graham took. I am an Air Force veteran; I hold convictions about this nation and its course. But conviction is not a license for cruelty. Paul writes — and this is my life’s motto — “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). The cross will not allow us to dance where we ought to pray. The Spirit will not anoint mockery as ministry.
Therefore, when a public figure dies, let the people of God refuse the world’s scoreboard. Rejoice not in ruin. Weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). Pray for the family. Examine yourselves. Number your days. Walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8).
Christ Ministered Through the Pain — and So Must We
Consider our Lord. When news came that John the Baptist was dead, Jesus withdrew to a desolate place. Grief was real even for the Son of God. Yet when the crowds found Him, He saw them, had compassion, and healed their sick (Matthew 14:13–14). He did not cancel the mission because His heart was heavy. He did not repay sorrow with bitterness. Later He prayed alone with the Father, and in the night He came to His disciples on the water, saying, “Take courage; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
Even though Jesus received bad news, He continued to minister through the pain. That is our pattern. Paul learned the same mystery under a different affliction: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair… always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:8–10). Suffering did not end the ministry. It deepened it. The comfort we receive becomes the comfort we give (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).
So I charge you, as Paul charged Timothy: be ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). When the feed is loud, preach Christ with your life. When the nation is anxious, do not faint. We have this ministry by mercy — therefore we do not lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:1).
Eager to Keep the Unity of the Spirit
Division is cheap. Unity is holy work.
I therefore beg you — as Paul begged the saints — walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1–3). There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4:4–6). That oneness is not built on identical politics. It is built on Christ crucified and risen.
When believers treat death as a tribal victory, we do not look like the body of Christ. We look like the world. But you are not your own; you were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). You are members of one another (Romans 12:5). If one member suffers, all suffer together (1 Corinthians 12:26). How then can we celebrate while another household is crushed?
Unity does not mean we stop thinking carefully about the times. It means we refuse to let disagreement make us forget the Gospel. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). If we cannot be one in compassion, we will not be one in mission.
Do Not Be Conformed to This Age
I know the temptation. I spend time on X. I produce content for radio. The age rewards outrage. The louder the condemnation, the greater the applause. And little by little, those who belong to Christ begin to sound like those who do not.
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame (2 Corinthians 4:2). The works of the flesh are evident — enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions (Galatians 5:19–21). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). Test yourselves. If your first instinct at an opponent’s death is celebration, pause. Ask the Spirit to search you. Delete what does not build up. Pray instead. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
As a chaplain I have sat with too many crushed people — the inmate who lost everything, the parent who buried a child, the worker whose marriage collapsed under unspoken grief — to treat death lightly. Loss is never a joke. Grief is never content for the flesh.
Our Citizenship Is in Heaven
Here I must remind you of what Paul pressed upon the Philippians: America is not our end game. I love this nation. I am grateful to serve here as a chaplain and a veteran. We pray for kings and all who are in high positions (1 Timothy 2:1–2). We honor governing authorities as far as conscience allows (Romans 13:1). But we put no confidence in the flesh — not in office, party, or platform.
“Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). This world is our assignment, not our home. We are sojourners. The Kingdom we seek cannot be shaken, because it is the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 12:28). Earthly seats turn over. Parties rise and fall. Nations rise and fall. Christ remains.
Therefore, beloved, keep building what endures. For some of you that is raising children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. For others it is being salt and light at work. For me it is walking into prisons with Kairos, sitting with the grieving, and offering workplace spiritual care that treats people as those for whom Christ died. Whatever your calling today, do not be pulled off course by the chaos of the age.
When loss comes — and it will come — walk this way:
- Withdraw when you must. Even Jesus sought a desolate place.
- Receive the Father’s comfort. Then comfort others with that same comfort.
- Keep the ministry. Do not lose heart.
- Pray. Be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12).
- Speak courage. Strengthen the weak. Encourage the fainthearted (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
- Keep the unity of the Spirit. One body. One Lord.
- Set your mind on things above (Colossians 3:1–2). Build the Kingdom that remains.
To Those Who Mourn
If you are walking through loss — of a public figure you respected, a family member, a friend, or even someone you opposed whose death still wounds you — hear this: the God of all comfort is near. He is the Father of mercies. You do not have to pretend the pain is unreal. Christ did not. Paul did not. He wrote through tears. He boasted in weakness so that the power of Christ might rest upon him (2 Corinthians 12:9).
If you need someone to sit with you — not to fix you, but to bear the burden with you — reach out. That is what the body of Christ is for. That is what chaplains are for. That is unity when it is more than a slogan.
A Prayer
Father of mercies and God of all comfort, we lift up the family of Senator Lindsey Graham. Give them the peace that surpasses all understanding, which guards hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). We pray for South Carolina and for those in authority as they steward this transition.
From earth we cry to heaven: make Your people one. Soften every heart tempted to celebrate. Heal the divisions this age amplifies. Knit us together not in sameness of opinion, but in oneness in Christ. Let the church refuse the works of the flesh — mockery, bitterness, tribal victory — and walk as children of light. Teach us to number our days. Turn our eyes from earthly scorekeeping to the Kingdom of Your Son. And grant that we who name the name of Jesus would keep ministering through whatever pain we carry, just as He did — and just as Paul learned to do by Your grace.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever (Ephesians 3:20–21). Amen.
Brothers and sisters: keep ministering. Keep praying. Keep loving. Maintain the unity of the Spirit. Build what cannot be shaken. The mission remains — and the King is coming.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
From a chaplain’s heart.