When I learned through a friend that Chuck (Carlos Ray) Norris passed on last Thursday, March 19, 2026, I thought to myself, “Is this even possible?” Or was it that death had a near-Chuck Norris experience? Immediately afterward, my Facebook feed was filled with Grim Reaper memes suggesting that Chuck replaced death itself. The Babylon Bee joked that Norris, upon entering Heaven, said, “Fear Not!” to calm the “trembling angels.”

All memes aside, the man that could not die has died. And despite the myth of invincibility, he, as we all will have to, crossed the chasm from temporality to eternity.

And yes, I’m at it again, another theological obituary. I just can’t help myself.

Chuck Norris’ life mirrors the storyline of one of his own films. Born in 1940, he grew up in poverty with an alcoholic father of Cherokee descent who was often absent. Alongside his brothers, Aaron, who would later direct the movie Sidekicks, and Wieland, Chuck was primarily raised by their Irish mother.

The myth of invincibility obscures a deeper truth: the conditions of his early life helped forge the strength he later embodied. He learned martial arts when he was stationed in South Korea with the United States Air Force. He first learned Tang Soo Do and became world champion by the mid-1960s.

The making of a cultural legend began shortly thereafter. His iconic fight scene with Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon is undoubtedly one of the most memorable moments in martial arts cinematic history. From there, he starred in films such as The Delta Force and Missing in Action. Later in his career, he took on a different kind of role in Sidekicks (1992), alongside Jonathan Brandis, a Karate Kid–style coming-of-age story in which a bullied boy learns discipline through martial arts and ultimately proves himself in competition. He eventually cemented his place in American households with Walker, Texas Ranger throughout the 1990s.

Aside from his onscreen action scenes, martial arts prowess, and overall “toughness,” what distinguished him was his insistence on each episode conveying a moral message, something that I have reflected upon recently as having largely been lost in popular TV series, especially since the 1990s. Recent years have lacked such a moral imagination. Norris emphasized the importance of demonstrating virtue. Long before the Internet transformed him into a myth, Norris proved to the world that there was something much deeper than just cinema. People watch Chuck Norris movies to see the hero overcome the villains. That’s what he delivered, and that’s exactly what audiences wanted.

Then came the memes. Around 2005, the Internet crowned him with a strange kind of digital immortality with the creation of absurd memes. They were hilarious, but they were also silly and over the top. It reveals something deeper about ourselves and our longing for heroism, even though as a culture we have lost sight of it.

Here are some of my favorite Chuck Norris memes:

“Chuck Norris doesn’t do pushups. He pushes the Earth down.”
“Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.”
“Chuck Norris can divide by zero.”
“Chuck Norris was once bitten by a Rattle Snake…After 3 Days of suffering the rattle snake died!”
“When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.”
“Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.”
“Chuck Norris makes onions cry.”
“Chuck Norris told a woman to calm down and she did.”
“Chuck Norris once attended a feminist rally. He came back with his shirt ironed and holding a sandwich.”
“Chuck Norris doesn’t have a send button on his email, it knows its role.”

Without doubt, Norris was transformed into a secular myth, a figure seemingly unbounded by space-time and typical human limitations. But inevitably, as it always does, reality intervenes. Despite his continued vitality even into his 80s, Norris could not escape his own finitude. The lesson we must learn is that strength, discipline, and even legendary status eventually succumb to the final temporal fate.

Beyond his accomplishments as a martial artist, actor, screenwriter, and health and fitness guru, he was also a dedicated family man. Above all, Norris understood himself first and foremost as a Christian. Many of those who enjoyed his memes may not know that he was also a best-selling author and regular columnist for the conservative publication WorldNetDaily. He authored books about martial arts, conservatism, philosophy, and Christianity. In 2008, he favorably reviewed the Intelligent Design documentary Expelled, which featured Ben Stein.

Norris’ faith was the defining aspect of his life. In reflecting upon gratitude, he once wrote,

Giving thanks is still a choice—a discipline, especially in times of trial and hardship… You might say, “Easy for you to say, Chuck.” But it’s not, not always. I’ve had tough times, too. I’m tested like anyone else. But one thing I know is the older I get, the more grateful I am, for the good, the bad, and even in the ugly.

These words reveal a man who didn’t view himself as self-sufficient but dependent on the One who depends on no one. For Norris, gratitude was rooted in the recognition that all goodness ultimately is a gift from God.

As an outspoken Christian, Norris was a staunch defender of life:

We shouldn’t justify violence to humans outside the womb or inside the womb. Instead, we should esteem all human life from conception to the grave. It’s crazy sometimes what modern humans value over human life. Case in point, plastic straws.

That same clarity appears in his defense of the vulnerable. In his review titled “God’s kids are not for sale” of the movie Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel, he condemned the exploitation of children with unambiguous moral force:

Shouldn’t the abducted and trafficked children alone matter so much to all of us (despite what side of the border wars you’re on) that we do everything within our power to protect them from domestic and alien predators, including the willingness to declare a national emergency or build a barrier wall at the border?

Norris was consistent in his defense of human dignity since he believed in the infinite worth of every human being.

Despite his fame and widespread influence, Norris identified as being very timid. He found inspiration in St. Paul’s testimony and battle with timorousness (something I, too, struggle with).

He compared his struggle with shyness to the words of St. Paul:

He was so shy. In 2 Corinthians 10:1, he talks about addressing the Corinthians and says, “I am so timid talking to you.” The Apostle Paul did what he had to do to spread the message of God. I realize that that is what I have to do; I have to bite the bullet and overcome my shyness.

In a reflection on Christmas, he defended Christianity’s core belief that Christ entered human history not merely as a symbol but as the actual person of Jesus. Citing a series of historical facts and referencing the work of journalist Lee Strobel, he emphasized that this reality requires a personal response from everyone.

A couple of years ago, he wrote a moving reflection about his mother’s passing and how she “finally reached her heavenly home in the arms of Jesus and her parents and siblings, whom she missed so desperately.” He had an unflinching faith in the world to come and the transitional nature of our earthly existence.

He experienced familial loss at a much earlier age when his younger brother Wieland, was killed in Vietnam in 1970. It was a loss that affected him deeply. The experience of such a loss can inspire either despair or faith. For Norris, it brought him closer to God with a strong sense of life’s fragility. Thus, again, the man whom the internet joked was invincible understood himself as one who would stand before God. In the summer of 2000, he told New Man magazine, a Christian men’s publication, “Real men do live for Christ… It’s important to make your peace with Christ while you still have the chance. Life is fragile, and you never know when it might end.”

I believe that Norris’ writings and spoken words reveal a man who saw himself not as a source of strength as many envisioned but one accountable to a higher power. The myth of indestructibility was quite the opposite of his own view of himself. His own words consistently pointed to his need for repentance and grace.

Nevertheless, his life was defined by strength and endurance. The illness of his wife, the deaths of loved ones, and the burdens carried quietly away from the camera all testify to a different kind of strength, one marked by perseverance. When his wife, Gena, fell seriously ill, he remained by her side every day. She later recalled that: “Chuck slept on the couch next to me and read 17 books. I can laugh now. It wasn’t funny then.” In his own words: “My whole life right now is about keeping Gena alive. I’ve given up my film career to do it.”

Despite all his accomplishments, Norris seemed to have carried himself with an air of humility. Like each of us, he had his failings. He openly acknowledged an affair during his first marriage and later welcomed his daughter Dina, born from that relationship, into his life. He spoke candidly about this and meeting Dina for the first time in his memoir, Against All Odds: My Story, publicly embracing her and asking for forgiveness. This humility, too, was part of the man behind the myth.

We must always remember that, despite being a man who was turned into a symbol of invincibility, he spent his life reminding others of his own fragility. A man celebrated for his physical strength and his fighting abilities spoke repeatedly of the necessity of grace. And a man whom the culture imagined, even if jokingly, as immortal lived with the clear awareness that he would die.

In the end, his life is a testimony to where the real battle lies: not between another opponent, but rather, as it does for all of us, the battle and struggle against temptation and the battle for our own souls. 

This year, we have had no shortage of the famous—whether personally known, unknown, or simply forgotten—passing into the mysterious threshold of eternity. There is a growing shift among celebrities toward belief in God and the afterlife, including some who identify as Christian. The hyper-materialism that was once promoted by pop atheists is quickly fading into the dustbin of history.

Canadian philosopher Thomas De Koninck passed on this year as well. His words from the Select Committee on Dying with Dignity in 2010 are a gentle reminder of the eternal worth we have in the eyes of God:

Despite all his accomplishments, Norris seemed to have carried himself with an air of humility. Like each of us, he had his failings. He openly acknowledged an affair during his first marriage and later welcomed his daughter Dina, born from that relationship, into his life. He spoke candidly about this and meeting Dina for the first time in his memoir, Against All Odds: My Story, publicly embracing her and asking for forgiveness. This humility, too, was part of the man behind the myth.

We must always remember that, despite being a man who was turned into a symbol of invincibility, he spent his life reminding others of his own fragility. A man celebrated for his physical strength and his fighting abilities spoke repeatedly of the necessity of grace. And a man whom the culture imagined, even if jokingly, as immortal lived with the clear awareness that he would die.

In the end, his life is a testimony to where the real battle lies: not between another opponent, but rather, as it does for all of us, the battle and struggle against temptation and the battle for our own souls. 

This year, we have had no shortage of the famous—whether personally known, unknown, or simply forgotten—passing into the mysterious threshold of eternity. There is a growing shift among celebrities toward belief in God and the afterlife, including some who identify as Christian. The hyper-materialism that was once promoted by pop atheists is quickly fading into the dustbin of history.

Canadian philosopher Thomas De Koninck passed on this year as well. His words from the Select Committee on Dying with Dignity in 2010 are a gentle reminder of the eternal worth we have in the eyes of God:

For my part, I am deeply convinced, with arguments to support this view, that every human being, whoever they may be and whatever their condition, is unique in the world and possesses equal dignity—that of being an end in themselves. One can therefore never say or think: “he does not matter,” or “her life is no longer worth living.” With human dignity understood in this rigorous sense, which stands in contrast to the Roman concept of dignitas of old, no compromise is possible. Every human being matters.

After writing about so many lives and deaths, I continue to pray to Christ that I—and all of you, my readers—will be prepared for Him. For we, too, must die. And we mustn’t forget, as we live day by day, action by action, thought by thought, that we are all moving toward judgment and, by grace alone, toward Him.