I spoke with a young woman in our church who rode the bus to school with Charlie Kirk every morning. She’s not the only one in our church who knew him personally.

I think all of us were shocked at the atrocity of his assassination. I was at the airport and about to board the flight home when news came that he had been shot. People all over the airport were talking about it. Someone showed me a video of him being hit, and it was something I wish I could unsee. It wasn’t until I arrived at O’Hare that I learned he did not survive.

If you put a vulture in a 6’x8’ pen that is open on top, the bird—despite its ability to fly—would be a prisoner. Vultures learn to fly by running 10 to 12 feet and lifting off. They are fully capable of taking off in a short span, they just don’t know it.

The bats you may see flying around at night need either an uneven surface or a slight ledge to get airborne. If one is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle around helplessly. If you lift it just a bit, it takes off like a flash.

My grandpa was in Africa as a volunteer carpenter for a Lutheran mission. He went because he loved to hunt, and it was his dream to hunt big game in Kenya. One day on a hunt, he walked by a tree with a spitting cobra in it, lying in wait for prey. These cobras attack by spitting venom into the eyes of their potential prey to blind them.

Grandpa was spit in the eyes.

Several years ago, a video went viral. Someone captured their dog trying to drink the shadow of running water on a brick wall. You can see the freeze frame from that video here.

I chuckled along with millions of other viewers while watching what this dog kept trying to do. The real water was flowing right in front of him, but he was insistent on trying to quench his thirst from the shadow of the real thing. The more he licked the brick wall, the thirstier he became—because the shadow of water on dusty brick will never quench thirst. Poor guy!

I thought it was odd. “They are just trying to get attention…wanting to be noticed for being super spiritual."

I was saved in a church where the format was less formal, but nobody ever raised their hands during worship or dared to show any emotion.

Climbing Mount Everest has a fascinating history. Until the mid-1990s, one-quarter of all people who attempted to reach the summit died in the process. Two years ago was the deadliest year for those making the attempt.