I talked to a friend recently about courage, and he made what I thought was a really profound point worth thinking about in depth: Not all courage is the same. For example, there is moral courage and physical courage.

Physical courage is the soldier who braves the hail of bullets to complete his mission or to save his brother-in-arms. It is the fireman who risks his life to run into a burning building to save people who might otherwise die without his help. It is the mother who instinctively shields her child from danger using her own body.

Physical courage is generally the type of courage we reward in modern society because it is so obvious and visceral. It is easy to see and easy to depict. We know physical courage when we see it, and we also know physical cowardice when we see it.

But there is another type of courage that we don’t often recognize and praise, and that is moral courage. Moral courage is hard to depict in a mural or a statue. A monument to men planting a flag at Iwo Jima just seems more dramatic than someone calmly standing up and speaking the truth at a school board meeting, or telling a friend his behavior is ungodly, or internally vowing to no longer silently abide the lies of a culture that tells you boys can become girls or unborn babies aren’t people.

Many of us may simply never have the opportunity to demonstrate physical courage or cowardice. That’s one reason it’s so important to praise the physically courageous, in the hope that it would condition all of us to not cower in fear if and when we are ever placed into that crucible.

It’s easy to say, “Oh, I definitely would’ve stepped in to protect that girl on the train,” but the reality is most of us have no idea how we would react until we’re forced to make that decision.

In our lives, however, we have the opportunity to practice and display moral courage every single day and in everything we do. Raising your children to do good and hate evil is morally courageous. Publicly objecting to false doctrines spread by wicked messengers is morally courageous. Stopping what you are doing and praying to Christ when you feel hopeless and helpless is morally courageous.

Standing up before a culture that hates God and hates good and revels in evil is morally courageous. Risking your job and livelihood to speak the truth and reject lies is morally courageous.

You do not have to find yourself in the midst of war, a terrorist attack, or a natural disaster for the opportunity to demonstrate moral courage. You can demonstrate it in every aspect of your life countless times each day.

And the thing about moral courage is that it becomes easier and more instinctive the more often you do it. At a certain point, you won’t even realize you’re doing it, because the thought of doing something else is simply inconceivable.

This is the type of courage Charlie Kirk demonstrated every day. And while he physically paid the ultimate price, it was his moral courage that defined him. He was bold and unafraid. It was his moral courage that gave him the strength to go out every day and face people who hated him, knowing full well he might not live through it.

Charlie’s moral courage was the source of his global impact. It was obvious in everything he did. Charlie boldly preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to a culture that didn’t want to hear it, and in the process, his message changed the hearts of millions of people. While the prophet Jonah recoiled at the thought of saving the wicked people of Nineveh — to the point of fleeing on a ship to the farthest ends of the earth — Charlie heard God’s call and said, “Here I am. Send me.”

Charlie is being mourned not because he was a great political debater, but because he was a fearless follower of Christ and a bold witness to His grace and mercy. It was that faith, and the courage that comes from it, that informed everything he did.

So as you continue to grieve over Charlie’s death and mourn his loss, one way you can honor him and cement his legacy is by asking yourself each day, “How can I demonstrate the type of moral courage that Charlie displayed all the way up to the very end?”

You can do this without fear, because you know with certainty that the God who created all things also sent His Son to die for your sins and defeat sin and death for all time, all so you could spend eternity with Him in heaven. And if that doesn’t seem real to you just yet, consider going to Christ in prayer right now and asking Him to give you the same peace and forgiveness and courage that he gave Charlie.

For it is written, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”