To Tucker Carlson: keep saying true things

It was a “shot heard around the world.” Unlike the battles of Lexington and Concord with British troops on one side and Americans on the other, this skirmish featured a media empire versus a solitary man. When the dust had cleared, Tucker Carlson was gone.

“It’s Bloody Monday,” James Golden, aka Bo Snerdley, declared on his show, The Rush Hour. And indeed, it was.

The news, when it hit, triggered a veritable tsunami of reactions. Pundits sprang up like mushrooms on a damp, forest floor. Suddenly, everyone was an expert, offering up analysis and insight into the reasons for the firing.

Predictably, conservatives were outraged. Many cancelled their subscriptions, “swiping left” on the network at large. Liberals jeered and cheered, ecstatic at Tucker’s forced departure. Even some Republicans called it good. Interestingly, they declined to put their names to their opinions, hiding beneath anonymity’s cloak.

As I reflected on this story, what came to mind was some weighty truth that life has taught me. The first truth is this—often, the hard, unexpected, and unjust things that happen to us come bearing gifts. When my husband lost his job unexpectedly and unfairly, we were devastated. The firing came at a terrible time for our family. We were right in the middle of buying and selling houses when the proverbial rug was yanked from beneath us most unceremoniously. What to do?

For months, he applied everywhere. In the 1990s, factory jobs here were plentiful. For a man with a college degree, though, every inquiry was politely declined. One after another after another, he heard “no.” Then one day, the telephone rang. It was a company he hadn’t known existed. “We heard you’re looking. Would you like an interview?”

He went to the interview, and he got the job. To our great delight, it offered better pay and benefits than the job he’d lost. He settled in, and life returned to a new normal.

However. Even with the blessings that the new job brought, it was not without significant challenges. It exacted a great toll from him, and yet he persisted, showing up for work every day, giving his best. By the time that season came to an end, as all seasons do, the thorn in his flesh had done its work. It had prepared him perfectly for what came next—his current career and his sweet spot.

Looking back now, my husband says that the unjust dismissal was God’s way of redirecting his path. It wasn’t a punishment. It wasn’t an angry blow from the Almighty. He was merely using it to prepare him for something much greater, something he could not have dreamt up on his own. He is grateful.

This is often how it works. When suffering and injustice fall upon us like a pair of highway bandits, we reel for a time. As the shock subsides and we find our legs again, we begin to see that perhaps the detour we didn’t want is actually a rerouting to a better place we didn’t even know that we needed. And one more time, it’s only a season, only a chapter. It isn’t the end.

The wonderful thing about our past struggles is that we can use them to teach our own children. I cannot count the times we have pulled these stories out and used them to instruct and encourage our sons. Every time that we tell them, it restores courage and peace to their hearts, and our own faith is strengthened in the telling. This is a great and precious gift. It’s legacy work.

As for Tucker Carlson, I know he will land on his feet. To these maternal eyes with much experience, it looks an awful lot like a grand rerouting to something better, something bigger, something free.

As Tucker himself said in a touching statement released in the days after the firing, “True things prevail.”

Yes, Tucker, they do. They really do. May you find many gifts in this chapter of your life, knowing it’s not the end, it’s only a season. Crises, after all, are fertile grounds for miracles, and they birth so many good things.

From one American to another, keep saying true things. May God bless this land that we love.

Rhonda is known as “America’s small, caffeinated mom.” Every Saturday, she joins Bo on his show for the Saturday Morning Extravaganza.