Why Brit Hume Saw the Face of God

FOX News viewers are familiar with Brit Hume, the popular political commentator and journalist. The 69-year-old television veteran is the network’s senior analyst and a keen observer of culture. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brit for an extended conversation during a visit to Washington D.C. I found him to be a true gentleman, and he shared with me a little bit about the painful death of his son, Sandy, to suicide.

In an interview scheduled to air tomorrow (Friday), Mr. Hume expounded more on that difficult subject with Christian Broadcast Network’s chief political correspondent, David Brody:

When my son died in 1998 … I had the feeling through it all, that God was there, that He would rescue me from grief and pain, and that, I would get through it … And things happened during that period that I looked to Him as the only reasonable explanation.

Brit Hume grew up in the Episcopal church but had never really made his Christian faith the centerpiece of his life up to that point.

It’s fair to say that while down deep I had a faith in Christ, I didn’t really live that life for most of my adult life, and I had successes and failures and ups and downs like everybody else, but I can’t say that I had the kind of inner peace that you get when you kind of surrender to your faith and put your trust elsewhere, which is hard to keep doing.

We don’t naturally do that as human beings. We naturally want to take charge ourselves, and we naturally are trying to get God to help us with our plans instead of us trying to help be a part of His plans.

In the weeks and months following his son’s death, Brit and his wife were overwhelmed by the kind and compassionate outpouring from people all around the world – most of them complete strangers who had heard or read the tragic news and simply reached out to them with a card or note.

I thought I was seeing the face of God,” he said. “And I felt enormously lifted by it, I felt grateful for it, and I said to myself, ‘Well, Hume, turns out you’re a Christian. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Mr. Hume’s candidness and vulnerability are powerful, especially given the industry in which he works. To lose a child to suicide is a painful and private matter, yet he’s willing to talk about it in the hope that the Lord will be glorified in the process and somebody will be likewise touched by Christ’s love.

That Brit was so touched and impacted by the compassion of others should serve to remind us to be willing to enter into the grief and pain of others if given the opportunity. Whether it’s a phone call, a note or leaving a plate of cookies on the front porch, what’s important is that we reach out to those who are in pain. We don’t have to have answers. We simply must show them that we care.

In the midst of the discussion, Brit Hume shared with Mr. Brody that he had just come from a Bible study and stressed that he’s still a work in progress.

“Christianity is a religion for sinners,” he told him, “and thank God for me it is.”

And for me, too.