USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving. Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free. I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these." "They just come with the table, man." They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner. This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat. I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared. "Did we…?" "Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless." Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined. My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude." Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man. I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy. Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived. I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most. Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.

Once of the best National Anthems you’ll hear

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: I am in Moneta (near Roanoke), Virginia, to preach the 20th church anniversary of Troy Keaton and the Eastlake Community Church. The service was in a tent on campus, with close to 1,000 attendees. Ten minutes into the service, a sudden, severe weather event pulled the support poles out of the ground and blew the tent off. One of the elders of the church went to be with Jesus, and several others were seriously injured. Please pray for Pastor Troy, Eastlake Church, and this community - that the hope of our risen Savior would be theirs in abundance during this crisis.

Inbox from Gov. DeSantis

Messengers to the #SBC26 meeting in Orlando unanimously elected President David S. Dockery convention preacher for the 2027 annual meeting in Indianapolis, and he and other members of the faculty represented #SWBTS during the SBC. swbts.edu/news/dockery-to-gi…

Coming soon from @BHAcademic - 2nd edition of _American History_ vols. 1 and 2!

"notoriously not a big reader" Of the presidents since LBJ, only four were widely known to be big readers: Nixon, Carter, Clinton, and Obama.

NEW: Texas AG Ken Paxton sent a formal letter to Big 12 officials threatening legal action if the conference moves to sanction Texas Tech over its support of QB Brendan Sorsby. (via @PeteNakos) on3.com/news/big-12-threaten…

“Southwestern Seminary is no longer on probation for good cause but is in full adherence with SACSCOC accreditation standards,” President David S. Dockery announced in a letter today to the seminary community. swbts.edu/news/sacscoc-resto…

Maybe the foreigners have it right. Maybe the eagle and the flyover and the canyon and the kindness of a stranger with car keys really are worth crossing an ocean to see. Maybe, watching them fall in love with the place we take for granted, we could fall in love with it again ourselves and decide to be a little more charitable to the neighbor God told us to love, even when we cannot stand how he votes. ewerickson.substack.com/p/th…