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The Fellowship of Suffering

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   I am well and truly blessed in this life. I have an amazing husband, wonderful children who love me, and a supportive family. I have a comfortable home, with two of the cutest dogs alive. We have nice cars that get us where we need to go, and we don't have to worry about them breaking down. We are adequately provided for, with extras that allow me to travel and see the world. I have so much more than so many in this world, and it makes me feel uncomfortable with expressing that I also have suffering in my life. But that is the absolute truth, and I think it's important to share it for many reasons.  Back in 2017 when I first began receiving my diagnoses, one of the first things I did was to learn about them. I signed up for webinars. I read books. And I joined Facebook groups. While I learned a lot from the webinars and books, I think what I really needed in this process was the Facebook groups. You see, I needed to get outside of the technical information and see what...
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Planning for Disney: Finding a Place to Stay

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  If planning for the trip is half, or more, of the fun as I shared in this post  then Disney travel is where it's at! There are so many details that can be anticipated and placed on an itinerary. It's a travel planning junkie's dream trip. Well, it's my dream trip anyways, that's why we're taking it. When my travel days were clearly numbered, my husband had me put together a bucket list  and at the top of it was taking my family to Disney World. I've wanted to do that ever since my kids were little, and I want to do it now while I can still enjoy it!   Starting off, I knew we wanted to travel in 2025, so I started looking at crowd calendars to determine the best week to go when there wouldn't be a ton of people there. Weather is also an issue for me so I didn't want to go in the hottest part of the year. The sweet spot seemed to be May, so I started looking at dates that included two weekends and the best week on the calendar.   When I returned fro...
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Praising Like God's Already Done It

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  Who is a God like you? Who forgives sin and pardons the rebellion of those who remain among his people? Who does not stay angry forever, but delights in showing loyal love?   Micah 7:18  Today I consider Micah chapter 7 . This chapter encompasses an interesting journey for Micah. It is one I share with him, and I think many others do too. We’ve heard of the stages of grief and probably experienced them ourselves. I think this is Micah’s version of these.   In the beginning of chapter 7, Micah wallows in misery, both his and his country’s. How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger.   Micah 7:1 NLT   Now Israel had been through some truly atrocious times. Things got so bad at one point people were literally eating their own children ( Deuteronomy 28:53-57 ). Here Micah is complaining about a fig shortage. Reali...
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How are We to Love God and Love Others?

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Missionaries in India preparing to tell a Bible story He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.   Micah 6:8 (NIV)  What does God want and expect from us? We already know that righteousness is off the table , we don’t have a chance of that on our own (Romans 3:23). Some have given up all their earthly wealth and possessions. I think of Francis Chan and how God directed him in his life to literally give up everything and just trust God to provide. Is that what God wants? Well yes, in some ways that is what He asks of all of us, that we would hold more tightly to God than we do to things of this world. But really, giving money to God is not what we’re talking about here. God doesn’t need our money. The Bible says He owns the cattle on a thousand hills . So, He doesn’t want us to be perfect, He doesn’t want our money, what does He want?  Today’s verse says God wa...
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Living Six Months At A Time

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  I go six months in between MRIs to check on my brain tumor at this point. You might think that gives me a six month break in the worry, but it doesn't. My husband and I were discussing this in the car today, on the way home from a doctor's appointment of course, and what we decided is that it gives us about two months of, "Boy I'm glad that scan was clear." Followed by two months of, "Well, I'd better not book anything six months out because I don't know what the next scan will show." And finally two months of, "I wonder what the next scan will show? Are my symptoms worse? What will we do if it's worse? What if they say they just can't tell still?"   Living like that is exhausting! Both of us are so over it, but not sure how not to live it. It's not like we're actually caught up in worry. We've really handed things over to God and we trust Him for it, but the wondering has us in pretzels. Do you know what it's ...
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Why Would God Want to Use Me?

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  As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah – from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past.  Micah 5:2  I live in the city of Puyallup, Washington. Our claim to fame is that we host the Washington State Fair , one of the top ten largest fairs in the country boasting over a million attendees each year. Really, though, I live in a suburb, a smaller town outside of a small city, called South Hill. South Hill’s claim to fame is that is the birthplace of Megan Quann , winner of two gold and one silver medal in the Olympics. We even have a sign announcing this as you cross the border between Puyallup and South Hill.   While Bethlehem (referenced in today’s verse) is no longer a small, farming town, it’s not a huge metropolis either. It has embraced the tourist industry, primarily driven by it’s claim to fame of being the birthplace of Jesus. Today the population of ...
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What is Salt Worth if it Loses its Saltiness?

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Logo designed by Teri Zebarth And in future days the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it.   Micah 4:1  When I started hearing God’s call on my heart to start blogging, I put it off. I thought, “Someday I’ll be able to do that, but not now.” Then, as the call grew more insistent, I started taking classes on how to blog. Finally, I took the plunge and prayerfully created my blog, The Salty Zebra .   When I was learning about blogging, the focus of most of the lessons was on people-pleasing. You were supposed to see what people wanted to hear, and tell them that. You were to discover the most commonly searched words and create blog posts around them. You were to make sure to incorporate numbers into the title, “The 7 best places to eat in Las Vegas,” “10 Ways to build a stronger body,” “Eating for health, 4 Foods you should focus on.” The teaching showed me that I shou...
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