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Jason Collins dies at 47 of a brain tumor. President Trump meets Xi Jinping in Beijing amid Taiwan, trade, and Jimmy Lai tensions. And a small business owner navigates Christmas in the middle of a trade war.
A basketball pioneer dies young, two presidents meet in Beijing, and a small business owner stares at a spreadsheet wondering if she can afford Christmas. None of it is outside the hand of God.
Stories Covered
• Jason Collins, NBA's first openly gay active player, dies at 47 of a brain tumor
• President Trump arrives in Beijing for high-stakes talks with Xi Jinping on trade, Taiwan, and Jimmy Lai
• Christianity Today profiles small business owners squeezed by a year of tariffs
• $4.8M tentative settlement in the Ronald Greene Louisiana traffic stop death
• CBO estimates Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense at $1.2 trillion
• U.S. student test scores: decline predates COVID, but some states are gaining ground
Scripture References
• Ecclesiastes 7:2
• Proverbs 21:1
• Philippians 4:11
• Proverbs 21:15
• Psalm 20:7
• Jeremiah 6:16
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Understand the news. Keep your peace. Follow Christ. The Gospel Briefing is a five-minute weekday Christian news decision brief hosted by Charles King. Each episode brings three consequential stories into the light of Scripture, helping you enter the day informed and steady - without panic, outrage, or partisan noise. Go deeper with Bible Copilot.
This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... a forty-seven-year-old basketball pioneer dies of a brain tumor. A president flies to Beijing to face the strongest rival America has ever known. And a small business owner is trying to figure out Christmas in the middle of a trade war.
Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it.
[TRANSITION]
Jason Collins died yesterday. He was forty-seven.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, here's the short version. Collins played thirteen seasons in the NBA. Center. Stanford grad. Twin brother also played in the league. And in 2013, he became the first active player in any of the four major American men's pro sports leagues to publicly come out as gay.
His family announced Tuesday that he died after an eight-month battle with an aggressive brain tumor. Forty-seven years old.
Now... this is the kind of story where you can already feel the internet sorting itself into camps. And I want to slow that down for a minute. Because a man made in the image of God just died of cancer at forty-seven. His mother is grieving. His twin brother is grieving. That is the first fact.
Christians hold two things at once here, and we don't get to drop either one. Scripture is clear about God's design for sexuality, and it's clear that we don't get to edit that to match the moment. And Scripture is also clear that every human being bears the image of God — that death is an enemy, not a verdict, and that a forty-seven-year-old dying of a brain tumor is a tragedy worth grieving regardless of anything else about his life.
Ecclesiastes 7:2 says it's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting, because death is the end of every man, and the living will take it to heart.
That's the call today. Take it to heart. Cancer doesn't check your worldview before it shows up. Forty-seven is young. And every one of us is closer to that house of mourning than we like to admit.
[TRANSITION]
Air Force One landed in Beijing this morning. President Trump is there for high-stakes meetings with Xi Jinping — trade, Taiwan, Iran, China's support for Russia, and the case of Jimmy Lai, the imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken Christian whom more than one hundred US lawmakers are urging Trump to raise personally.
The BBC framed it this way. A decade ago, Trump met a rising China. Today, he meets what one analyst called arguably the most powerful competitor the United States has ever confronted in its history.
Let that sink in. Not the Soviet Union at its peak. Not Imperial Japan. China, right now.
There is a temptation, when two superpowers meet, to think the future of the world is being decided in that room. And in one sense, real decisions are being made — decisions that will touch your job, your grocery bill, your kids' future.
But 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.
Xi Jinping does not believe that verse. Donald Trump may or may not, depending on the day. It doesn't matter. The verse is still true.
Pray for Jimmy Lai. He's seventy-seven years old, sitting in a Hong Kong prison cell for the crime of running a newspaper and following Jesus. Pray for wisdom for everyone in that room in Beijing. And remember that the nations rage, and the Lord sits enthroned.
[TRANSITION]
Christianity Today ran a piece this morning that I haven't been able to shake. It's about a woman named Erica Campbell. She runs a small online business. Last year her shop was full of Christmas ornaments — baby Jesus in the manger, Mary and Joseph, baby rompers with little nativity illustrations.
This year she's trying to figure out if she can afford to stock Christmas at all.
The tariffs that have defined the past year of American economic policy have hit small importers hard. Campbell's products come from overseas. Her margins are thin. And she's one of thousands of small business owners trying to make decisions in November about a holiday season that's going to land whether she's ready or not.
I'm not here to tell you whether the tariffs are good policy or bad policy. Thoughtful Christians disagree, and they're going to keep disagreeing. That's fine.
Here's what's not up for debate. Behind every economic statistic is a person. A mom at a kitchen table running spreadsheets at midnight. A factory worker waiting to hear if the line gets cut. A pastor in a manufacturing town watching his congregation get squeezed.
Philippians 4:11 — Paul says he has learned, in whatever situation he is, to be content. Learned. Not arrived at. Not stumbled into. Learned. Through plenty and through hunger. Through abundance and need.
Erica Campbell is learning that this November. A lot of Americans are. And the church's job, in seasons like this, is not to have a hot take on tariff policy. It's to be the people who show up for the family three pews back whose business just folded.
[TRANSITION]
A few more headlines worth knowing.
Louisiana officials have agreed to a tentative four point eight million dollar settlement with the family of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who died during a violent roadside arrest by five white officers. Proverbs 21:15 says when justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous. Seven years late is still better than never. But seven years is a long time to wait.
The Congressional Budget Office now estimates President Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense system will cost one point two trillion dollars over twenty years. The original price tag was one hundred seventy-five billion. Psalm 20 — some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Missile defense may be wise. It is not salvation.
And test scores. A new analysis confirms that American kids' academic decline began years before COVID — the pandemic just accelerated it. But some states are turning things around with structured phonics and consistent expectations. Sometimes the old paths really are the good ones. Jeremiah 6:16 had something to say about that.
[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 Proverbs 21:1.
"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He will."
A basketball player dies young. Two presidents meet in Beijing. A small business owner stares at a spreadsheet. None of it is outside His hand. Not one inch of it.
Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode steadied you, send it to one person who needs steadying too. The headlines change every morning. The hand holding them doesn't.
I'll see you tomorrow.