He has suffered enough ... he deserves his reward

I interrogated him when I first met him as a 19-year-old. Questioning 19-year-olds is my specialty. I asked him some questions he couldn’t answer. He was already becoming famous at the time, and I noticed his reaction.

He asked, “What should I do?”

I answered, “Well, you have to suffer. If you want to grow, you have to suffer. It’s hard to learn—into the night, crack of dawn in the morning. Start with the Bible. Read the classics. Study the founding of America. In those places you will find that there’s a ladder that reaches up toward God. And at the bottom of it are the ordinary good things that are around us everywhere. If we can call them by their names, they have being, and the beings of the good things are figments of God. You will find this teaching in Aristotle. You will find it in the Bible. You will find it in Madison and Jefferson.”

“How do I learn that?” Charlie asked. “You have to suffer,” I said. “You have to study. You have to think.”

- Adapted from Larry Arnn's remarks at the memorial service.