The World and Everything in It - June 22, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Southern Baptist Convention has a new president. He’ll tell us his vision for the future.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also analysis of the summit between Biden and Putin in Geneva last week.

Plus hiking for the soul—spending time on the trail to deepen your faith.

And life lessons from swim lessons.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, June 22nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now here’s the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR:

Senate gearing up for test vote on sweeping elections overhaul The Senate is gearing up for a showdown today on U.S. election law.

Lawmakers are planning a test vote of the For the People Act. The sweeping elections bill that would be the largest overhaul of U.S. voting law in a generation.

The legislation could shift a great deal of power over voting rules from states to Washington. During debate on the Senate Floor Monday, GOP Texas Senator John Cornyn said he’ll oppose it.

CORNYN: The Constitution doesn’t give the Democratic party, or the Republican party, to govern how states run their elections. That’s reserved to the states by the Constitution of the United States of America.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Washington has to step in to walk back new voting laws in Republican-led states, which Democrats have called unjust.

SCHUMER: They’re not about election integrity. They’re not about voter fraud. These policies have one purpose and one purpose only: making it harder for younger, poorer, non-white, and typically Democratic voters to access the ballot.

Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin has been the sole holdout among Democrats in the chamber, declining to back his party's bill. But late last week he aired a list of proposed changes, including a national voter ID requirement.

But even if every Senate Democrat chooses to adopt the changes, Republicans can and likely will filibuster the bill. 

High court sides with ex-athletes in NCAA compensation case » The Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that the NCAA can’t enforce rules limiting education-related benefits.

It’s a ruling that could help push changes in how the student-athletes are compensated. But NCAA President Mark Emmert said the ruling did not erase the lines between college and professional athletes.

EMMERT: You know, I’ve already seen some headlines that want to portray this as now turning student athletes into paid professionals who are going to get very large scale payments and compensation. That’s not what they ruled at all.

The case does not decide whether students can be paid salaries. Instead, the ruling will help determine whether schools decide to offer athletes tens of thousands of dollars in education benefits for things including tutoring, study abroad programs and graduate scholarships.

Under current rules, students cannot be paid, and the scholarship money colleges can offer is capped at the cost of attending the school. The NCAA had defended its rules as necessary to preserve the amateur nature of college sports.

But the former athletes who brought the case argued that the rules were unfair and violated federal antitrust law designed to promote competition. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling barring the NCAA from enforcing those rules.

Japanese organizers to allow limited fan attendance at Olympics » Fans will be allowed to attend the Summer Olympic Games next month in Tokyo, but stands will not be packed. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Olympic organizers have set a limit of 50 percent capacity—up to a maximum of 10,000 fans. And all spectators must be Japanese residents. The rules apply to both indoor and outdoor events.

The announcement comes as many in Japan continue to call on the government to postpone the games once again. The vast majority of Japanese residents are not yet vaccinated. And the country’s top medical adviser, Dr. Shigeru Omi, last week recommended playing the games without fans.

New infections are now declining in Tokyo, but officials said that if cases surge again, they could still bar fans altogether.

The games are set to begin on Friday, July 23rd.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Claudette spins over Atlantic after claiming 14 lives » Tropical Storm Claudette is now spinning over the Atlantic after soaking the southeast and triggering multiple accidents blamed for more` than a dozen deaths.

Nine children died in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 65 south of Montgomery on Saturday. A van carrying children from a youth home was involved in the wreck.

East Brewton Police Chief Kenneth Brazile told WEAR that parts of his community are unrecognizable after the storm.

BRAZILE: It’s unreal. You never think it’ll happen to you. You see other communities and other states and other areas of the world, but you never thought it would hit home.

A 24-year-old man and a 3-year-old boy were also killed Saturday when a tree fell on their house just outside Tuscaloosa. And a 23-year-old woman died in Fort Payne after her car ran off the road into a swollen creek. In total, the storm claimed at least 14 lives.

The system is expected to pass near or south of Nova Scotia before dissipating later today. 

Tornado devastates Chicago suburb » Meantime, just outside of Chicago, residents are still surveying the damage in the wake of a Sunday night twister that damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes.

Woodridge, Ill. Mayor Gina Cunningham told reporters…

CUNNINGHAM: Our community has been tremendously impacted. It’s actually devastating. At this time, we are currently continuing our assessment of the damage.

At least eight people were hospitalized in the suburban area west of Chicago, but no deaths were reported.

Naperville, Fire Chief Mark Puknaitus said Monday…

PUKNAITUS: We found one house that was completely leveled and a couple of other houses that were severely damaged. And there were people that were trapped in a house that was really leveled by the wind damage.

The storm left more than 20 homes uninhabitable.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: fallout from last week’s summit in Geneva.

Plus, lessons on living after a near-death experience.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 22nd of June, 2021.

You’re listening to World Radio and we’re so glad you are! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: a reset for the United States and Russia.

Last week, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin shook hands in Geneva, Switzerland. Government-backed media in Russia hailed the summit as a victory for their guy. They said it marked the “beginning of a next phase of world politics.” Reactions in the United States were much less enthusiastic.

REICHARD: Biden says he’s trying to play a “long game” with Putin. He believes Washington will ultimately benefit from a “stable and predictable” relationship with Moscow. But are the short-term sacrifices worth it?

WORLD European correspondent Jenny Lind Schmitt reports.

AUDIO: [CAMERAS]

JENNY LIND SCHMITT, CORRESPONDENT: In separate press conferences following last week’s summit, both Biden and Putin described the meetings as constructive.

But they had a very different take on two of the top issues on the meeting agenda: cyber attacks and human rights.

Putin dismissed accusations that the most recent ransomware attacks on U.S. companies originated from Russia. Instead, he tried to flip the narrative, claiming without evidence that most cyber attacks on Russian institutions come from the United States.

Paul Poteete is a professor of cyber security at Geneva College. He says we can’t know for sure who was behind attacks on Colonial Pipeline and the JBS meat processing plants. But the attackers did use ransomware software created in Russia.

POTEETE: So if you're looking at that, do we then say it's a Russian attacker, just because it was a Russian group that made the ransomware?

And then I don't know who actually was benefiting from the ransomware.  It could be somebody in India, it could be somebody in the United States, South America. So it could be, but, yes, the ransomware was created by a Russian group. However, we don't know who actually uploaded it.

President Biden said he made it clear to Putin that if such attacks with Russian-built ransomware persist, America would respond. He implied that the United States has the cybertechnology to inflict real damage. Poteete agrees but calls that scenario extremely problematic.

POTEETE: This gets into the political side where if we talk about actually taking action against another nation state, then we are in the definition of an act of war. ... It is virtually defined as any action deliberately taken against another nation to cause them harm.

So some hacking group hacks some organization in the United States, and then the U.S. military is then going to go attack Russia. No, I would say that's crazy.

Any cyber attack by any U.S. entity into Russian systems would play directly into Putin’s domestic narrative of the West trying to destroy his country.

So the issue of cyber security remains a stalemate. But what about human rights? Did Biden make any more headway on that issue?

AUDIO: I’m Daria Navalnaya, daughter of of Alexey Navalny, one of Vladimir Putin’s top political rivals….

A week before the Biden-Putin meeting, the Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy gave its 2021 Moral Courage Award to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. His daughter, Daria, accepted the award on his behalf.

NAVALNY: It’s a big honor for my father and for everyone who supports what he’s doing. Its’ an important sign of recognition and it means that the world cares.

Biden says he talked to Putin about Navalny and would continue to do so. But that didn’t change Putin’s take on his opponent’s jail sentence. He insisted Navalny went abroad to seek medical treatment of his own accord, violating his parole. In fact, Navalny’s family transported him to Germany in a coma after he’d been poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.

In an interview with CNN the day after the summit, Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov said Putin’s bald-faced lie may have been intentionally far-fetched.

VOLKOV: ‘I’m lying, what are you going to do to me?’ Maybe this is exactly the message he wanted to deliver. Putin doesn’t know such things as compromise, reset button, red line. Putin only knows that he can do whatever he wants and he’s good to get away with whatever he does and the West will still be talking about strong condemnations and grave concerns.

This member of the Russian opposition in Moscow agrees. We’re not using his name to protect his safety.

AUDIO: Russian government and Putin see it as a victory. Since 2014 Russia became an outcast for the Western countries, and it was really important for Putin to show that West still sees him as an equal legitimate leader.

He said the summit ended up striking a blow against the Russian opposition because it made Putin feel stronger.

AUDIO: He realizes that he can do everything, then the time will pass, the U.S. will forget everything, and try to restart their relationships. It happened during the Obama presidency once, and it looks like it’s happening again.

In the last months Moscow has cracked down harder than ever on the opposition movement. New laws make even associating with Navalny’s group a retroactive crime. That means hundreds of thousands of citizens are liable for investigation. And it effectively eliminates competition for September’s parliamentary elections.

At the same time, Putin has clamped down on independent media outlets like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. They are now required to label their content as from a “foreign agent” or face stiff fines. Some opposition members fear Putin interpreted the summit as a signal that the West will let him finish off the opposition with no consequences.

Leonid Volkov says one thing could deter Putin from further human rights abuses: freezing his assets abroad.

VOLKOV:  So Putin is kind of trying to increase his exchange fund to get more hostages. Also American citizens and Russian political prisoners and so on. So his assets in billions of dollars, that he’s stashed abroad and stolen from Russian taxpayers, they must also be taken hostage. This could create strong leverage against him and really deter him.

But for now, that’s not on the horizon.

Instead, Russian media outlets hailed Putin’s return to prominence on the world stage. They noted other world leaders, like the U.K.’s Boris Johnson, now want to schedule their own meetings with the Russian leader.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Lind Schmitt in Geneva, Switzerland.

JENNY LIND SCHMITT: I’d like to add one quick thought before I go: I’m nearing my fourth year as a European correspondent for WORLD from my home here in Switzerland and if you’ve already supported WORLD’s June Giving Drive, I want to say a personal word of thanks for making my work possible.

If you haven’t had the chance to yet, I’d encourage you to make it a point to visit WNG.org/donate today.

WORLD’s journalistic mission is critical in times like these.

Serious times call for sound journalism grounded in facts and Biblical truth and it says something that WORLD commits resources to make sure its voice is here, along with all the global media that gathered for this summit.

Please keep Christian journalism strong, please help secure its future by supporting WORLD’s June Giving Drive at WNG.org/donate. Thank you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: thoughts from the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

About 15,000 Southern Baptists gathered in Nashville last week to cast their votes for the next president of the SBC.

Among the contenders, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler. He’s a member of World’s board. Also, Randy Adams, a state convention leader who ran on reformist ideas, and Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who many expected to become the SBC’s next president.

But the surprise winner was a little-known Alabama pastor named Ed Litton.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: WORLD reporter Sophia Lee spoke with Litton shortly after the election, although her questions were off mic. So here now are snippets of that interview with Litton, at a point that he called an “important moment” in the convention’s history.

LITTON: This is a seminal moment. We are deciding as a people if we’re going to stay on target. Are we going to be distracted by politics? Or are we going to get serious about the gospel and the difference it makes, the transformational difference it makes in people’s lives?

REICHARD:  Litton says he believes Baptists are opting for the latter, returning to the gospel, as he put it. And he painted a word picture of the Southern Baptist Convention, drawing on an indelible image from the last world war.

LITTON: When the United States launched in World War II, we sent Navy destroyers to protect these massive armadas of ships that were taking supplies to Great Britain. And I see those ships as an analogy of Southern Baptists. We're not a denomination, we're a collection, if you will, a convention of churches. So every one of these “ships” is a different church, and their payload is the gospel, and we're getting the gospel to the nations.

That’s the focus. We’re getting the gospel—keeping our focus, not turning inward, not being self protective, but actually taking the risks that our missionaries take every single day to share the love of Jesus Christ with others.

And there’s a lot of directions that people want to go and ships want to veer off. And by the way, every captain of that ship can go where he wants. But if we’re going to get this thing done, we’re going to have to stay in line with each other. Not only that, if you’ll remember, the analogy is really good because there was an enemy. Nazi U-boats were coming after these ships, and they were sinking them right and left. And when one would peel off, they would nail it and lives were lost. It was real. We’re in a real spiritual battle, and we need to stay together, move in the right direction.

REICHARD: And sticking with the German U-boat metaphor, he said one of the deadliest torpedoes in the enemy’s arsenal can be summed up in one word:

LITTON: Pride. Pride is a serious problem for us. The Bible tells us that our job is to humble ourselves. All of us must humble ourselves before the Lord and realize that we are desperate sinners in need of a Savior, and even redeemed, we are desperately in need of God's daily grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. We all need that, and when we turn on each other, sometimes it's because of envy, sometimes because pride. All those sins come into our personal relationships.

There’s a reason why Jesus left his disciples and said I’m sending another comforter of the same kind, the Holy Spirit, because you guys are going to have to work this out.

The same struggles we have in the SBC, the early 12 disciples also had, but guess what? They were able, with God's great help, to get enough together to work through the minor things and keep focused on the major thing. We wouldn't have the gospel today if they had failed, but they weren't going to fail. Because the Lord was with them.

So when we demonize each other, when we are attacked, it builds wounds and distrust. It fragments us as a people. And we've got to see Satan's schemes in this.

REICHARD: Pastor Litton said he recognizes that many Southern Baptists are concerned that the convention is drifting in the wrong direction. And he said that is a legitimate concern, but he added, the SBC might be drifting in a different direction than many people think.

LITTON: I think a lot of people in the Southern Baptist Convention are concerned. We by nature, as Southern Baptists, are always concerned about drifting. You hear that terminology constantly. In order to drift, you just pull the oars and let the current of the culture take you. We forget that. We're worried about drifting, and I think in some ways we should be, but I don't think we're drifting into liberalism. I think we're drifting into fundamentalism. I think that’s where out of fear, people want to tighten things down and make sure that everybody's lined up on all the tertiary issues. But our focus has got to be the gospel.

One of the big concerns for Southern Baptists is that we have declining baptisms and declining Cooperative Program giving. I'm going to tell you why I believe that's happening: I believe that fear has driven us to live in a bubble in our churches, so that we don't trust people who don't look like us, think like us, or vote like us. And so what’s happening is we're being isolated from the world, when Jesus said no, you're to be in this world, not of this world. You need to love the world. You need to love the people in the world and engage them with God's love, which means we care when they are being treated unjustly. We care when they are hurting, we care when they're struggling. And so I think our people are not winning people to Christ because churches have become our cultural bubble, where we protect ourselves, look out the windows, and say, “Look how bad things are out there.” God put every one of us in a city for the purpose of being his representatives in that place— loving people, helping people.

REICHARD: Litton said that is the path forward for the Southern Baptist Convention and the body of Christ, lifting the church’s collective gaze, and understanding who the enemy is and who the enemy isn’t—each other.

Unity, he says, is found in a renewed focus on the great commission.

EICHER: That was newly elected SBC President Ed Litton. To read more of his conversation with WORLD Senior Reporter Sophia Lee, visit wng.org or find a link in today’s transcript.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Can you guess what this sound is?

AUDIO: [Sound]

It’s more of a visual thing, I think.

I’ll just have to tell you: you’re hearing the peck-by-peck destruction of a wildlife camera.

It comes from a nature reserve in Russia and so to make it blend in, the rangers disguised it as a piece of bark.

The good news is it worked!

The bad news is it worked.

The camouflage was so good this woodpecker went to town.

Officials say woodpecker-pocked camera is going to be out of commission for some time as they repair it.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 22. Thank you so much for joining us today for The World and Everything in It.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next: Spiritual encouragement from nature. 

WORLD correspondent Jenny Rough heads to the great outdoors with people who take time to look closely at the world God has made.

AUDIO: [TRAIL CHATTER]

JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: Three hundred forty-five point four miles left to go. Those fractions are important if you’re hiking. The distance sounds like a long way on foot. But for the Strawbridges, it’s not that much. The family of six has already hiked thousands and thousands of miles together.

If you’ve been following this podcast for awhile, you may remember meeting the Strawbridge family last summer on the Continental Divide Trail in Pie Town, New Mexico. Vince and Monica are the parents. Their four kids: Aiden, June, Henry, and Georgie. Right now, ranging in age from 19 to 14.

AIDEN STRAWBRIDGE: We are doing the Triple Crown as a family because I think our number one thing is that we wanted to be together.

That’s Aiden, the oldest daughter. Triple Crown refers to America’s main cross-country trails. The family has committed to hiking all three. They completed the Pacific Crest Trail out West in 2018. The Continental Divide Trail last year. And now they are on the Appalachian Trail, a footpath along the Eastern United States.

They started March 1st at Springer Mountain, North Georgia. By early June, they are in New Hampshire. After a town stop for showers and laundry, they cram their packs and trekking poles into shuttles to be driven back to the place they left off: Crawford Notch.

On the ride to the trailhead, they recap this year’s trip. Hiking has not only brought them closer as a family. It’s allowed them time to enjoy sunrises, trees, rivers, and starry nights. Here’s Monica:

MONICA STRAWBRIDGE: There is some kind of wisdom that God reveals through nature. It is the power of his creativity and the diversity of his creativity. There are principles I think you get from being outside so much.

Heavy mist can serve as a reminder to trust God when life seems unclear. The mist will lift and the sun will shine again. A fresh blanket of snowfall can bring to mind the purity that God requires of his people, and the gift of it He has freely given through Christ.

Monica is drawn to the wildflowers. Aiden likes nature’s patterns. Georgie is all about natural light as the official photographer. She’s captures everything from old rock walls to baby porcupine sightings. Instead of simply reading about lilies in the Psalms or the briars in Isaiah, hiking allows the family to experience the natural world firsthand. Here’s Aiden.

AIDEN: You understand it and you hear it, and you can see the decay and the new life that’s coming out of the decay.

As he hikes up a steep incline in the White Mountains, Vince points out another reason nature provides a rich spiritual experience: no distractions.

VINCE STRAWBRIDGE: The walking has something to do with it. With helping you think more clearly, more slowly, more carefully.

But more than anything:

VINCE: The sense of dependency that you have as it relates to things that are outside your control. They are genuinely always outside of our control, it’s just harder not to acknowledge them here.

Vince says his family’s approach is a little crazy and shouldn’t dissuade others.

VINCE: There are a lot of different ways to do it.

Day hikes. Half-day hikes. Weekend hikes. A gap year. Or tackle a long trail over many years, one state at a time. In West Virginia, the Appalachian Trail is only four miles.

The Strawbridge’s decision to spend months and months on trail—not once, but three times—was a hard one. It was Vince’s idea, so he was game. But Monica?

MONICA STRAWBRIDGE: Oh, I was not for it at all. No, no. We were totally on opposite sides. And I mean, we just had different visions completely for what we thought our family should be doing. The kids have to get through school and…

Vince’s uncle had a suggestion.

VINCE: Why don’t the two of you get some couples that you trust around you? Just say we’re kind of inept here and we can’t make a decision on this. Would you help us? Five couples that we sort of gathered in a room and had an extended conversation about whether or not we would try for a Triple Crown.

And?

MONICA STRAWBRIDGE: Vince is persuasive.

Still, lots of logistics to sort out. Meals, resupply packages, and how to handle an untraditional education.

MONICA: The school part of it is still the most, I get the most fearful about that. I really think, honestly, though, in my heart, I think everything’s—they’re fine. They’re going to be great.

Turns out, homeschooling on the trail can happen, it just looks different. Here’s Monica and Georgie:

MONICA: I listened to Jayber Crow in the Smokies in the rain, and it was perfect because it’s a low, low-toned book.

GEORGIE: And he goes into all of his deep thoughts.

Henry has decided to continue his unique approach to education in future years. He’s come up with his own school curriculum.

HENRY: I like knowing about how all the economical stuff works and how stocks and all that stuff works. I really like history.

All three trails have had scary moments. Last year, a blizzard. This year, the day Georgie got lost.

GEORGIE: I stopped to put on my rain jacket because the bugs were killing me. I thought we were going to the top of the mountain to the shelter up there. I kept hiking and kept hiking and didn’t actually ever think I was lost until I got to the top and it was getting really dark.

Thankfully, everyone was reunited.

June, the second oldest, says the nice thing about hiking this year is that they are closer to their home in Florida. Friends and family can meet up for surprise visits.

JUNE STRAWBRIDGE: More friends and family have actually come out to see us. Grandpa will come out. He’ll drive up from Florida. He can’t do too much because he’s had a hip and knee replacement.

A truth about hiking and life: One small step might not seem like much. But it’s the small steps over and over that lead to the accomplishment. Yesterday, the Strawbridges took their final step on their Triple Crown journey. At 10:22 a.m., they reached the northern terminus at Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough on the Appalachian Trail.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Some things in life are too serious to take lightly. Like learning to swim. Here’s commentator Whitney Williams.

AUDIO: [Kid crying]

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: Ms. Margaret doesn’t take any lip. She’s serious about teaching kids to swim.

Tears from a 2-year-old don’t faze her. “Dry it up!’ she says as she pulls tiny girls into the water. Screaming fits on the side of the pool? “You! Zip it!” she tells the kid sternly with a pointed finger. Vomit? “There’s a hose over there at the side of my yard—Just hose him off, mom, and then get him back over here to the pool.”

AUDIO: Face in the water. Face in the water. Go!

After a few minutes of lessons, she allows the kids to fall beneath the water right beside the wall. “Reach up!!! Reach up!” she yells, urging them to take hold of the wall and pull themselves out. She praises them when they do and rescues and warns them when they don’t.

Some parents may think Ms. Margaret’s method is a bit too harsh. But after one of my sons nearly drowned under my watch last summer, I decided we were done playing around when it came to swimming lessons.

The situation still haunts me. Honestly, I feel ashamed to even talk about it. My son Jake was 3 at the time, as was his twin brother, Luke. The twins and I, along with my oldest son, Colt, were at a neighborhood pool with some church friends. It was bustling with activity. My three kids begged to take off their life jackets to eat lunch more comfortably. I reluctantly agreed, and laid out a towel behind me for them to sit on. I handed out three lunches and three drinks, carefully packed; then I went back to chatting with friends. A few minutes later I heard Jake crying. I looked up and he was standing at the side of the pool. Dripping wet, terrified eyes, no life jacket. His hair was wet, so I knew he had gone under. Oh, so he saved himself, you might think—that’s great. But, no. No, he did not. He had walked past me, down the stairs, into the pool, and sunk ... silently, helpless, with his mom, his God-given protector, oblivious just 7 feet away. I almost lost my child that day, were it not for a stranger standing by the stairs who rescued him ... were it not for the grace of God. I signed my boys up for swimming lessons with Ms. Margaret the very next day.

Ms. Margaret knows she scares a lot of the children in her class. But she doesn’t let that dissuade her. Her mission is not to show kids a good time or to teach them how to blow bubbles under the water. Her only goal is to protect them from drowning. Her discipline comes from love.

AUDIO: [Sound of swimming ]

Swim lessons at Ms. Margaret’s remind me a lot of our relationship with God. How often we flounder in the pool of life, thinking His rules and rebukes harsh and unfair, fighting His life-saving instructions, the very instructions meant to keep us from drowning.

AUDIO: I did it!

I’m Whitney Williams.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: trade with Europe. The United States and its Western allies have called a truce in a decades-old trade war. We’ll talk about the reasons why on Washington Wednesday.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.