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A Christmas story

December 24, 2014
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The Glenn Beck Program

A Christmas story.

I have had a milestone day.

Maybe it won't seem profound to you but it was to me.

I hesitate to share this with you because some will think that I am lifting myself up when indeed the opposite it true. I would not have felt what I felt today if I were the man I would want others to believe I am. (Which none of us are).

We are all flawed. Struggling and selfish. We strike out when we are afraid. We become ego maniacs when we fear we are not good enough. We become self righteous when we are far away from God. We become judgmental when we are the least likely to be asked to help judge others in the after life. When we close our minds to others it generally is because we are no longer curious (a bad sign) or when we are afraid that our point of view is right but we can't defend it.

I am many of those things and at times in my life I have been all of those things. Our job in life is to shed that natural man and become more Christlike.

Our next challenge in such a dark world is to SHARE our light. To not hide it under a bushel. Jesus didn't hide the healing. The apostles gave and healed and not only shared it, but wrote it down. Not for their glory but for His. To show others that joy, peace and comfort can be found.

Love will change the world. But it must be modeled. May I suggest you and I begin sharing our experiences?

I have promised The Lord, "show me miracles and I will proclaim them throughout the land." Not for my glory but for His.

Please, I beg you. Do the same thing. Let's reintroduce a good and great God to the world,

Our God is much bigger than we give Him credit for. We are worried about our jobs or our car payments. He cares and He will do those things, but let's let Him show is what He can do.

He is a God of grace, love, covenants and miracles.

This morning at six am, we got the kids up, dressed and ready to take on the snow covered mountains. We drove to a place two towns over. It was the local food bank. There, for a few hours, the kids, Tania and I, unloaded boxes, stocked shelves and helped bag groceries for those less fortunate than us.

It wasn't too long into our workday that I realized that if it wasn't for my ability to broadcast, my body would have given out and this would be the life I would be living with my children right now. There but for the grace of God go I.

About twenty minutes in, with people lined up out the door in the cold, a man looked up when I greeted him with Merry Christmas and with shock and disbelief he said to me:

"Are you ... Wait. You can't be. Are you Glenn beck?"

"Yes", I said feeling foolish. "Merry Christmas"

He looked down and said. "Wow, I never thought I would meet you here."

He paused and said perhaps to himself, "I never thought I would be here."

The gift of empathy. I felt him. I knew him. For a fraction of a second I was him and I loved him.

He had been successful and used to watch me on fox, but then lost his job and could no longer afford to watch, we caught up on things and he pushed his cart on through.

The newspaper came, looking for a Christmas story. I got down on bended knee and began to help my daughter restock shelves. It gave me a chance to bury my face until they left. I don't think they saw me. They will air the same story they air every year. In every town all over the world and no one will watch it.

I wasn't looking for a story. I was looking for a miracle. I found it. The kindness we saw. The moms with children. The gratitude. The great and powerful volunteers who treated us as if we really were making a difference on this one visit while they are there year round.

The people just like you and me, in situations they never thought possible. The people starving not for food but to no longer be invisible... Or maybe no longer wishing to be invisible.

Another man stopped me and simply said, "you are so much taller than I would have imagined. Why are you here?"

"My kids and you". I replied. He told me about how he was now raising his grand daughter as his own, this daughter just moved to New York City and left her baby. With a far away look in his eyes he pondered aloud, "how does a mother do that?"

It was a day full of heart felt questions and needed insight and answers. None of which provided by me.

It wasn't long before I truly understood: We may all be in that line someday. Sooner than we think and longer than we care to admit.

As I was restocking the chocolate syrup I heard a woman pick up a bag of 3 popcorn balls as if they were gold, frankincense or myrrh. I heard her ask herself with my back turned,

"The question is, can I keep these hidden until Christmas morning?" She had struck gold, an answered prayer, a simple gift for her Children which indeed was a profound gift to her from a Father who loves her.

I almost broke down and wept. I remember those days when I couldn't afford a simple gift from the shelves of cvs. I felt like a failure as a dad.

I wasn't. She isn't and if you are going through tough times, neither are you.

Hard times make us.

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This trip started out as service to others, as something I wanted my kids to do. They have so much and their life is unlike anyone else's that I know. I want them to understand what the rest of the world is like. I want to teach them compassion, charity, love and most importantly, empathy.

I want to teach myself those things as well.

I left richer than I was when I entered and as always, my kids asked if we could do that again. Yes. On the first and third Saturday of every month this happens. Not just at Christmas.

I heard a sermon from a friend of mine this am before the family was awake. It revolved around despair. How many are suffering? Rape, death, joblessness, war, hopelessness, drugs, loneliness.

How many times have we heard "where is God? How could he allow this happen? So much suffering.!"

Let me apologize. I am just finally beginning to get it. If you know me and still ask that question "where is God?" then I have failed my God and you.

If you know me and haven't seen compassion, hope, faith, and patience than I haven't been doing my part.

Where is God?

Acting through you if you will let him.

Brightening the world through you. If people don't see Him in us than we are not active enough. If we are taking credit than we are misguided.

I saw God today.

He was picking up a bag of popcorn balls, he was taking care of his daughters baby as his own and he was bringing joy to others who can't afford every meal, just like him, wearing a red shirt and red sweat pants and a home made Santa beard he had made from yarn.

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He is there every Saturday and has been for twelve years. He is a simple man who knows how to give away pallets of joy as if it just grew on trees.

Let's find our way to each other. Let's really look people in the eye when we say merry Christmas. Hold the gaze a little longer than normal to let the other person know "I see you" and that they are not invisible.

Tomorrow, I am going door to door as Santa. We have mapped out the route, checked it twice. My kids are elves. Let see who leaves with more gifts, us or those who we visit.

I am not a perfect guy. I was raised in a family that never tithed nor had enough money to give to charity. I am still learning how to be a better man, father, husband and neighbor. Perhaps you are too. May I suggest, you stop begging for answers and begin to seek miracles and as you prepare for those to happen, go be a miracle in someone else's life.

Today!

From the house over the river and through the woods, with the smoke billowing from the chimney and the brightest stars you have ever seen lighting the diamond snow in the front yard ... Goodnight America.

Post by Glenn Beck.

Civics isn’t optional—America's survival depends on it

JEFF KOWALSKY / Contributor | Getty Images

Every vote, jury duty, and act of engagement is civics in action, not theory. The republic survives only when citizens embrace responsibility.

I slept through high school civics class. I memorized the three branches of government, promptly forgot them, and never thought of that word again. Civics seemed abstract, disconnected from real life. And yet, it is critical to maintaining our republic.

Civics is not a class. It is a responsibility. A set of habits, disciplines, and values that make a country possible. Without it, no country survives.

We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Civics happens every time you speak freely, worship openly, question your government, serve on a jury, or cast a ballot. It’s not a theory or just another entry in a textbook. It’s action — the acts we perform every day to be a positive force in society.

Many of us recoil at “civic responsibility.” “I pay my taxes. I follow the law. I do my civic duty.” That’s not civics. That’s a scam, in my opinion.

Taking up the torch

The founders knew a republic could never run on autopilot. And yet, that’s exactly what we do now. We assume it will work, then complain when it doesn’t. Meanwhile, the people steering the country are driving it straight into a mountain — and they know it.

Our founders gave us tools: separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, elections. But they also warned us: It won’t work unless we are educated, engaged, and moral.

Are we educated, engaged, and moral? Most Americans cannot even define a republic, never mind “keep one,” as Benjamin Franklin urged us to do after the Constitutional Convention.

We fought and died for the republic. Gaining it was the easy part. Keeping it is hard. And keeping it is done through civics.

Start small and local

In our homes, civics means teaching our children the Constitution, our history, and that liberty is not license — it is the space to do what is right. In our communities, civics means volunteering, showing up, knowing your sheriff, attending school board meetings, and understanding the laws you live under. When necessary, it means challenging them.

How involved are you in your local community? Most people would admit: not really.

Civics is learned in practice. And it starts small. Be honest in your business dealings. Speak respectfully in disagreement. Vote in every election, not just the presidential ones. Model citizenship for your children. Liberty is passed down by teaching and example.

Samuel Corum / Stringer | Getty Images

We assume America will survive automatically, but every generation must learn to carry the weight of freedom.

Start with yourself. Study the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and state laws. Study, act, serve, question, and teach. Only then can we hope to save the republic. The next election will not fix us. The nation will rise or fall based on how each of us lives civics every day.

Civics isn’t a class. It’s the way we protect freedom, empower our communities, and pass down liberty to the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

PHILL MAGAKOE / Contributor | Getty Images

Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck resurrects the 9-12 Project to support Charlie Kirk's family

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.