The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Democrat Haley Stevens endorses Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers (WaPo)
“Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Detroit on Sunday, following days of tensions with the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in the primary. Stevens made the announcement in a video posted to X, in which she said El-Sayed said she was no longer welcome in his campaign.
“He’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers,” Stevens said, adding a criticism of the political commentator Hasan Piker, who campaigned with El-Sayed during the primary. “What our students see, what our children see and who we are as Michiganders is not hate and is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now,” Stevens said.
“Stevens’s endorsement threatens Democrats’ path to winning a Senate majority. They need to net four seats in Tuesday’s elections to take control of the chamber, and that path becomes much more daunting if they lose a Democratic-held seat and need to win in multiple red states.”
You Don’t Know How It Feels – Tom Petty and the American electorate. Some are “nauseously optimistic,” others are “screaming red,” and a bunch of us have monachopsis…
Some Democrats are "nauseously optimistic," hopeful yet keenly aware of how they have been burned in the past by their expectations. Polling indicates that there is a chance to flip districts that Pres.Trump carried by 20 percentage points in 2024, giving them guarded optimism.
Then there are those who are "screaming red." Staring at a map that looks bleak but with glimmers of hope, these folks recognize unprecedented Democratic enthusiasm and undeniable Republican apathy.
Then there are those who have monachopsis. In his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig describes this as a “subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place. It is the sense that you do not fully belong to your surroundings, even when there is no obvious reason why.” It’s not “loneliness in the traditional sense, nor is it rejection. It is quieter than that. It is the awareness that you are slightly out of sync with the world around you.”
“The crisis is not that we are politically homeless,” according to Michael Wear. “The crisis is that we ever thought we could make a home in politics at all.” While party platforms are changing, the Scriptures aren’t. We come from a long line of rejects, those who have been rejected by the world but accepted by the Creator of it. A party is a group of people who come together to win an election. We are a diverse group of people who believe we have already won. I don’t know who will win tomorrow, but I know the results of tomorrow shouldn’t change the call to faithfulness today. (Ephesians 5:10)
5. Learjet with 9 aboard crashes in Palm Beach County, Florida (ABC News)
“A Learjet believed to be carrying nine people crashed on Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach County, Florida, after making a rapid dive of about 350 feet per second, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane, a 22-year-old twin-engine Learjet 60, crashed after taking off from Austin, Texas, and was headed to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas, according to the FAA.
“All nine people on board a private jet that crashed around nine miles from President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach County, Florida are dead. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared the update Sunday afternoon, calling the incident a "horrific tragedy."
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, the FAA said. The plane went from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in a little over a minute, or roughly 350 feet per second, before it slammed into the ground, according to the FAA.”
So tragic and thankfully so infrequent… A study out of MIT found that, globally, the odds of a passenger dying on a flight from 2018 to 2022 were 38 times lower than they were 50 years earlier. The National Safety Council found over the course of a person’s life, the odds of dying as an aircraft passenger in the U.S. “were too small to even calculate.”
Perception doesn’t always match reality. This is known as an availability heuristic. This refers to how individuals often gauge the probability of events by the ease with which examples come to mind, rather than relying on more objective statistical data. This can lead to an overestimation of the frequency of dramatic yet infrequent events… like a plane crash.
“Heaven knows terrible things happen to people in this world,” according to Frederick Buechner. “The good die young, and the wicked prosper, and in any one town, anywhere, there is grief enough to freeze the blood.” Though there is a deep sadness because of this tragedy, there is a lingering hope amidst it. Buechner, drawing on the truth that God draws near to the brokenhearted, rightly concludes: “From deep within whatever the hidden spring is that life wells up from, there wells up into our lives, even at their darkest and maybe especially then, a power to heal, to breathe new life into us… Every man at one time or another experiences in the thick of his joy or his pain the power out of the depths of his life to bless him.” (Ps. 34)
4. US judge dismisses Trump election lawsuit in Alaska (NBC News)
“A federal judge on Sunday threw out a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's administration seeking to block Alaska from certifying a loss by Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in Tuesday's midterm elections if votes for a rival who shares his name could have changed the outcome. The ruling by US District Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage was the latest blow to Trump's efforts to assert a greater federal role in elections, which under the US Constitution are administered by the states.
“Citing potential voter confusion, the Trump administration sought to separate and preserve ballots with votes for Dan J. Sullivan, arguing that if the incumbent loses, it may be because people voted for the other Sullivan by mistake. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason voiced concerns about voters’ right to a secret ballot. “Requiring the segregation of ballots cast by voters for Daniel J. Sullivan so that these voters can be further investigated by law enforcement is not a remedy that this Court can or should order as it clearly violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.”
Like The Cranberries, Americans are having to Linger… largely because there is a chasm between breaking rules and breaking norms – the former is not legal, the latter is not desirable. In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke put this well: “I must bear with infirmities until they fester into crimes."
Is this a bear necessity? We bear with infirmities for a time to avoid violent toleration. Burke warns against what he calls a "violence of toleration"—the urge to completely purify society of every minor flaw. He argues that when some try to build a perfect utopia by aggressively stamping out small "infirmities," they invariably create massive, tyrannical "intolerances" that are far worse than the original flaws.
Jesus overturned the tables but showed great deference for existing institutions. He understood this world was broken but continually sought to reform institutions and redeem people (Mt. 18:15-20, Jn. 19, Rom. 13:1-7). In this instance, this practice doesn’t appear to be against the law but bearing with the law doesn’t mean you can’t work to change the law.
Cultural News
3. Red Baron pizza worker goes viral after impassioned video confrontation (Yahoo)
“Red Baron said on X that "employee of the month" nominations were closed after an employee who was harassed by a prankster verbally defended himself in a viral video this week. The Red Baron worker, who was harassed by a prankster while stocking pizzas at an unnamed grocery story, was identified as "Walt Z", and a Gofundme effort on his behalf has raised more than $480,000 after the video showing him emotionally responding to a prankster went viral.
“In the video, the prankster approaches Walt to ask for the time and as Walt pulls out his phone, the prankster plays a sound mimicking an Apple Pay transaction and tells him he took $10 from him. "I'm not in the mood for this crap right now," the Red Baron worker says. "You think this is funny don't you?" Walt, who is visibly upset, says he's going to report the prankster, who is not seen in the video, and walks away. "It's not a joke to me," Walt shouts as the prankster who this time comments on taking $20. "My life is hard enough as it is. I have kids at home that went to bed without me. I was supposed to be at home an hour ago and I'm still out here working."
A prankster’s selfishness has compelled widespread graciousness. I don’t want to say all of social media is bad, evidenced in the outpouring of generosity from strangers near and far, but a lot of it is. Research continues to show a strong connection between levels of narcissism and social media usage.
This moment has illuminated sonder… In his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig defines sonder as the “realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”
Unlike the prankster, don’t be marked by selfishness. Paul David Tripp put it well: “The DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin inserts me into the middle of my universe; the one place reserved for God and God alone. Sin reduces my field of concern down to my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Sin really does make it all about me.” (Phil. 2)
News You Can Use
2. These identical twins lead the same ER for a deeply personal reason
Watch it here. “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” (Pro. 22:9)
1. Navy dad returns home, surprises son in middle school lunchroom
Watch it here. “You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.'” (Jn. 14:15)
