Salty Zebra

  Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:22  Peer pressure is a powerful thing. It’s hard to be different, set apart as the Bible calls it. It’s so much easier to just go with the flow, following along with the flow of traffic and going “about” the speed limit. Being that one guy following the rules and going 60 in a 60mph zone is rough. People keep zooming around you. Sometimes they honk. Sometimes you can see the anger and assume the nasty words coming out of their mouths as they slow down next to you to let you know how much they don’t appreciate your choices. Really, they’d so much prefer if you did what they did and kept the freeway smoother and freer flowing. The irony is that the opposite is also true, if they just slowed down and went the speed limit with you it would be just as smooth and free flowing!   Now, the intention of this post is not to preach against speeding. Our vehicle definitely doesn’t stay below 60 on the freeway. The point i...

   The coolest things in my life have often started with a little idea and rolled from there. Back when I was first diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to undergo multiple surgeries, my sister-in-law sent me a couple of shirts in the mail. It was a sweet and thoughtful thing to do, and I bet she had no idea what it would lead to!   I wore the shirts she gave me to appointments with the intention of keeping life a little lighter. I knew it would brighten my spirit and hoped it would give the nurse, technicians and doctors I interact with a smile as well. And it did! I bought a few more shirts along the way. Sometimes they had to do with brain tumors, sometimes EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes), sometimes they just expressed how I was feeling.  It got to the point that when we hit a roadblock or a new challenge in my health journey, my husband would say, "It's time for a new shirt!" I had collected shirts about MRIs, shirts about brain tumors, shirts about EDS, shir...

  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.   Genesis 6:12  Sometimes God tells you something you don’t want to hear, something that seems so difficult, so counter to the way things look or “should be” that it’s tough to believe. This happened several times in the Bible: He told Gideon that they would defeat the armies of Midian with a small rebel band, He told Mary that she would have a child even though she was a virgin, and He told Noah that He would destroy the entire earth with a flood.   Noah probably knew that the earth was corrupt and violent, he lived in it. He saw it every day. But, just like we see and are used to the sin and corruption around us, I bet he was too. It was normal for him, expected. Yes, he may have seen it as wrong, but it also probably just was . How accustomed have we become to the sin around us, normalizing it, accepting it? What do you watch on TV, that you know is wrong, but you...

   When it comes to the side effects of radiation, this wasn't listed in any of the literature, but it seems that it has caused in me a passion for... crochet. Didn't see that coming did you? Yep, since the beginning of my treatment, I can't put my hook down! In fact, I often have multiple projects going at once. It all started with turtles...  I like to call them my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since they were a result of my radiation treatment 😂. I had been finishing a project I had started some time ago, just for something to do, while scrolling through patterns and ideas when these little guys jumped off the screen at me. I bought my first digital pattern on Etsy  and navigated to Knit Pics , my mom's favorite yarn site, to grab the required supplies which, by God's grace, were on sale and there was a free shipping promotion! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed using the Animation yarn from Knit Pics! It is high-quality with beautiful colors and a joy ...

  This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.  Genesis 6:9  Before whom do you long to be seen as great? Your friends? Your family? Your boss? Your pastor? I read this verse this morning and my first thought was, what an incredible eulogy! Oh, to be known this way, but I think the key to it comes in the verse before this, Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” As we read and learn about Noah, he wasn’t well loved and liked among the people in his generation. At best, people probably thought he was a weirdo. At worst, a lunatic. Had he sought to be well liked and loved by his peers, this would be a very different story. Instead, Noah was well liked by God, and why? Because he was righteous, blameless and he walked faithfully with God.  What does it mean that Noah was righteous? That he did not sin? Certainly not! But Noah sought to do right be...

  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  Genesis 6:5-6  Our verses today share that, at the time of Noah, “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Do you think God feels the same way now? If not, what’s different? I’d like to think that humanity has come a long way from this place. We have good people that love God and do good things all over the world, from the Billy Grahams and Luis Palaus to the Sunday school teachers and church janitors. But, if I’m being really honest, there are still evil thoughts and inclinations in my heart all the time.  I rarely act on them, mind you, but yesterday was an example to me of how, even as a new creation redeemed by Christ, I am definitely NOT perfect. I wa...