Glenn Beck shares 9 transformative truths on Charlie Kirk's tour; shares agonizing admission about his murdered friend

Prior to his assassination, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk invited Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck to join him on his fall campus tour. Honoring his promise to his faithfully departed friend, Beck took the stage alone on Thursday to a packed house at the Chester Fritz Performing Arts Center on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks.

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In addition to discussing American greatness and the moral complexity of U.S. history with the aid of artifacts from his vast museum collection — an American history collection he claims trumps all others in size with the exception to the National Archives and the Library of Congress — Beck shared a number of penetrating insights of both a professional and a personal nature.

On the professional side, Beck revealed that prior to Sept. 10, he had been preparing to tell Kirk that he would turn over his national radio slot to the Turning Point USA founder years down the road when he retires.

"I was grooming Charlie to replace me," said Beck.

'You are a divine daughter and son of God with all of the rights and privileges that go with that.'

"He didn't know that because I wanted to say that to him as a surprise: 'I've watched you. You've surpassed me. You have worked so hard. You've done everything you're supposed to do. I haven't seen anyone like you. I will turn my radio, my internet, whatever you need, over to you because you deserve it.'"

Referencing lessons learned from Kirk as well as his own life, Beck — wearing the same kind of black-on-white "Freedom" shirt that his friend was murdered in — also discussed nine things he regards as truths "that will shape you into the person you are born to be."

1. Question everything

"Question everything. Everything. Anyone who tells you, 'Don't ask that question' — run from them," said Beck.

The Blaze Media co-founder emphasized that this principle should be universally applied, especially when it comes to matters of theology. After all, Beck noted, God gave man the ability to reason, furnished him with curiosity, and left signs of Himself in and throughout creation, altogether affording the questioner everything he needs to become a firm believer.

"God wants you to find Him," said Beck. "He is your Father."

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2. The truth will set you free

Although acting forthrightly and speaking truthfully was a recurrent theme throughout Beck's address, Beck suggested that being truthful about sin and confessing sin is liberating and that there is freedom in the understanding that "you are a divine daughter and son of God with all of the rights and privileges that go with that."

3. Choose your thoughts

Beck noted that the human mind traffics multitudes of thoughts every day and that these thoughts have the power to define who we are. Therefore, it is incumbent upon free, thinking beings to exercise agency over their thoughts and be judicious about which thoughts to entertain or prioritize.

"The most powerful words in any language is 'I am.' Be careful what you follow that with," said Beck. "Why would you let the world tell you who you are? You are the only one that decides that. Life doesn't happen to you. Are you going to be acted upon, or are you somebody that acts?"

4. You will 'serve something.' Choose carefully.

Beck stressed that every person will invariably "serve something," recognizing something or someone at the summit of their hierarchy of values.

"You will serve something in your life. Guarantee it," said Beck, citing addiction and God as possibilities. "Choose your master because if you don't, your master will choose you."

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5. Forgiveness is essential

Beck, who would later discuss the competing elements of good and bad in persons and nations alike, noted that "without forgiveness, everything else falls apart."

Citing the recent example of Erika Kirk forgiving her husband's murderer, Beck acknowledged that forgiving others can be "crippling hard" but nevertheless important, in part because retaining animus toward trespassers could prove corrosive.

Beck noted further that it is important also to forgive oneself and to "put on the helmet of salvation."

6. Discipline is freedom

Reflecting on an incident where antagonistic forces in media apparently sought to tear him down, Beck noted that "no one can trap" those who live virtuously, are transparent about their failings, and emulate righteous people.

7. Faith is for realists

Beck hinted that faith, especially of the kind Kirk exhibited, is not a temporal remedy but an eternal connection; the confession of which is not self-serving but God-centric.

"Charlie had the faith that ... if I'm doing what I'm asked by the Lord to do, it will all be fine," said Beck. "It doesn't mean that it works out for you in the end, but it works out for God. Because Charlie was so faithful, because he worked so hard, because he built what he built in the name of God, somebody comes in and takes him and out — and look what God has done with that."

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8. Gratitude changes everything

Continuing to strike against the worship of comfort in today's day and age, Beck underscored the importance of gratitude not only as an antidote for envy, a force he suggested courses through the left, but as the proper response to life's many hardships.

"Gratitude changes everything. It doesn't erase the hardship. It doesn't. But failure is fertilizer. It's fertilizer for something great that is about to grow," said Beck.

Beck noted further that Kirk's family, friends, and followers exemplified gratitude by the way in which they responded to his murder.

"You had a choice: Choose death, choose anger, choose vengeance, or choose life, choose charity, choose peace, choose forgiveness — and look how you've already changed the world," said Beck.

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9. Community is oxygen

Beck finally cautioned about becoming siloed both on and offline, stressing the importance of hope-driven community: "You must have people around you."

Echoing Benjamin Franklin, Beck noted that "the best way to serve God is to serve our fellow man" and that societal transformation is necessarily social.

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