It has the most powerful bite of any shark on the planet. At 1,300 pounds of bite force per square inch, the Bull shark is even more powerful than the Great White. By the way—puny humans like us have a bite force that maxes out at a mere 150psi.
Bull sharks are found all over the world in saltwater oceans as well as freshwater lakes. They’ve even been found in Alton, Illinois—some 1800 miles up the Mississippi River! Not to creep you out, but almost no one in the water is safe from a Bull Shark.
They eat dolphins and turtles (hard shells easily cracked by the shark’s teeth). And Bull sharks will even attack hippos!
But here’s the creepiest fact of all. Bull shark babies, known as pups, usually live in mangrove swamps away from big nasty predators. But adult Bull sharks take advantage of this—eating the young of their own kind.
Disgusting? Absolutely. But what about us?
When we chew on juicy theories about why one of the church’s worship singers left her husband—aren’t we eating our own kind?
When we tear apart the pastor’s sermon—over lunch, no less—aren’t we eating our own kind?
When we hungrily swallow unflattering words about fellow believers, aren’t we guilty of eating our own kind?
That evil behavior comes so naturally is an ugly proof of Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
Today, let’s choose to be gentle—extra gentle—on the people around us. Especially those that rub us the wrong way. Remember—we’re called to be harmless as doves, not ruthless as sharks.
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
– Galatians 5:15
