Iran Deal in Limbo, California Evacuates, Elizabeth Smart's Healing — May 25, 2026

This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... a possible deal between Washington and Tehran, a town in California told to run, and a young woman who once made the world hold its breath — now learning to love the body that carried her through it. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] The lead story this morning is coming out of the Middle East, and it's moving fast. Over the weekend, the US Secretary of State suggested an agreement with Iran could be announced as early as today. President Trump went further on Saturday, saying any deal would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — that narrow shipping lane where roughly twenty percent of the world's oil passes through every single day. Then, this morning, Iran's foreign minister stepped to a microphone and said... not so fast. A deal, he said, is not imminent. So which is it? Honestly... we don't know yet. Oil markets are betting on peace — prices slid overnight on the hope of a breakthrough. But the gap between "we're close" and "we're not close" is the gap that has defined this conflict for years. Here's where I keep landing. Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will." Notice what that verse does. It doesn't tell us which king. It doesn't tell us which way the stream is flowing today. It tells us whose hand is on it. Christians are watching this story with all kinds of emotions. Relief at the possibility of peace. Skepticism, because we've been here before. Concern for believers in Iran who pay a steep price either way. All of that is appropriate. What's not appropriate is panic. The headlines move. The hand on the stream does not. [TRANSITION] Closer to home — and this one is genuinely serious. A town in California is under a state of emergency this morning. A chemical tank at an aerospace plant has cracked. It's overheating. Officials say it could leak. It could explode. Roughly fifty thousand people are under evacuation orders as of this recording. Let that sink in. Fifty thousand people packing a bag, putting the kids in the car, leaving the dog with a neighbor, and driving away from their own homes... not knowing what they'll come back to. There's a strange thing that happens in moments like this. The ordinary stuff of life — the unfolded laundry, the dishes in the sink, the bills on the counter — suddenly becomes very small. And the people in the car with you become very large. James 4:14 puts it plainly. "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." That's not meant to depress us. It's meant to clarify us. An evacuation order is a forced clarification. It says: what would you grab? Who would you call? Pray for those families today. And maybe — without waiting for a chemical tank to crack — ask yourself the same question their morning forced on them. What actually matters here? Who have I been treating like they'll always be around? [TRANSITION] The third story is more personal, and I want to give it the time it deserves. Elizabeth Smart sat down for an interview this week. You probably remember the name. She was fourteen when she was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. Held for nine months. Abused in ways no child should ever know. Rescued in 2003 in a story that gripped the country. She's in her late thirties now. Married. A mother. And she told NPR something I haven't been able to shake. She said for years, she carried shame about her own body. The body that had been hurt. The body she felt had somehow betrayed her. And recently, she's taken up bodybuilding — not for vanity, she said, but because she wanted to look at herself in the mirror and finally say... my body carried me. My body kept going. My body is not the enemy. I'm a middle-aged man with opinions about a lot of things, but I will tell you this. There is something profoundly Christian about what she just described, even if she didn't frame it that way. Genesis 1 tells us the body is not a prison. It's not an accident. God made it, and called it very good. Psalm 139 says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And First Corinthians 6 says the body of a believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. When evil touches a body — and it does, in this broken world — the lie evil whispers is that the body is now ruined. Shameful. The enemy. The gospel says something very different. Christ took on a body. Christ was wounded in a body. Christ rose again in a body. And one day, He will raise ours. Elizabeth Smart is preaching a sermon she may not even know she's preaching. And it's a good one. [TRANSITION] A few more headlines to keep on your radar this morning. Africa is racing to contain a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak. It started in eastern Congo and has now spilled into Uganda, with ten countries on alert. Distrust and armed conflict are making containment brutally hard. Pray for the doctors, the aid workers, and the believers on the ground. Jesus crossed every line — disease, shame, hostility — to reach the suffering. His people are called to follow. More than one and a half million Muslims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. They go seeking God through ritual and works. We grieve that. And we pray that some of them, in that vast crowd, would encounter the One who said... it is finished. A major university system in California is going all in on artificial intelligence in the classroom. Students and faculty are not all convinced. Proverbs 1:7 reminds us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge — not the algorithm. And one story that genuinely made me smile. A restaurant, watching diners stay home, has started letting customers pay whatever they want. The owner says trust is the only business model left. I think he might be onto something older than he realizes. [TRANSITION] In a moment you'll hear today's verse. What you do with it after — that's where Bible Copilot comes in. It's an inductive Bible study app — open any verse, ask anything about it, and it walks you through it: observe, interpret, apply. One rule: Scripture interprets Scripture. No outside commentary. No agenda. Free — no ads, no account, no data collection. Pro is five dollars a month for unlimited studies and guided reading plans. Search "Bible Copilot" in the App Store. Link's in the show notes. Today's verse is Psalm 56:3. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you." Notice it doesn't say "if." It says "when." David assumed fear would come. Negotiations stall. Chemical tanks crack. Old wounds rise up. The question isn't whether we'll be afraid. It's where we'll put our trust when we are. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you breathe a little easier, send it to one person who needs the same. The headlines will keep moving. The hand on the stream will not. I'll see you tomorrow.