Salty Zebra

  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...

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...

  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 ...

  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 ...

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...

  As I mentioned briefly last Wednesday , exercise is an important part of maintaining my blood sugar. According to my doctor and my nutritionist, I need to get some movement in after each time I eat. That's not super easy or practical because I'm a small-meal-every-two-hours person. That would mean I'm taking 7 or 8 walks a day! I wasn't even taking one walk most days before so that's quite a leap! But something is better than nothing, so what can  I do? Walking the Breast Cancer 3-Day in 2007. 60 miles in 3 days!  On our trip over the last week I did try to get out and do a 10-15 minute walk around the resort each time I ate, or I would get out of my wheelchair and push it around town like a walker. I always feel awkward about doing this no matter how long I've been using the chair. It's like I still feel like I have to prove my disability to everyone around me and if I get out of my chair they'll think I'm faking. Well, the truth is they might, bu...

  Until recently, I haven't been a frequenter of airport lounges. In fact I'd only been in one once on our way home from LA in 2008 when we got upgraded to first class because it was our 10th anniversary, and my husband had MVP Gold status with Alaska from all his work travel. I barely remember it, just a vague sense of feeling like an imposter, that I wasn't supposed to be allowed in there.  When my daughter began working for an airline in 2022, we started flying more. As parents of an employee we are granted the privilege of flying standby when there is room on a flight. Lets just say when you don't have to pay for airfare, it makes travel a lot more affordable! We did find, though, that we were spending a lot of time in airports. Number one, airports are expensive. Food, drinks, you name it. Next, airports tend to be uncomfortable. I think they don't want you to feel like you could settle in for the long haul. So I looked into the Alaska Lounges as this is the o...

“I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob, I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of a pasture; they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. The one who can break through barriers will lead them out; they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. Their king will advance before them; the Lord himself will lead them.”   Micah 2:12-13  “It’s not that bad,” you say to yourself. “So many people do things that are much worse.” “They deserve it after what they’ve done.” “I’m justified in my feelings because I’m on the side of right.”  We tell ourselves a lot of things to make us feel better. But the truth is, we all have a sin-sickness, we are all infected. It’s called Total Depravity and I talk about it more in another post .  The Bible is entirely clear that the cost of sin is death and we are all deserving of that punishment. There are no “i...

   Those of us with animals in our life often love them as family members. I can assure you that my two little black dogs are my babies. I miss them when I go on a trip, and I care about their needs and wants. I snuggle with them during a nap or in the evening while watching TV. They make me laugh. They make me cry. Occasionally they make me scream! What I'm getting at is that I care about them.  I'm so assured to read that God cares about animals too! Do all dogs go to heaven? That's a theological debate for another day, but what I learned today is that God counts animals in with people when it matters. I've been studying the book of Jonah for a week and they keep popping up. In chapter 3 , the king of Nineveh proclaimed that the animals would participate in their fast before God. What surprised me, I'll admit it made me giggle a little, was that he even decreed that the animals wear sackcloth! Here I am picturing the cows and sheep walking around with mourning clo...

    You may have read previously about the disappointing experiences we've had over the last year flying with my wheelchair. After our last flight, in February, my husband was motivated to write a letter to Alaska Listens . We waited to hear back, not sure what to expect.   Two weeks later, we received a phone call from the disability advocate from Alaska.  He was very friendly and kind on the phone, apologizing profusely for the experiences we'd had, and making sure to get all the details straight on our most recent incident. We spoke for more than 20 minutes and ended the conversation feeling heard and encouraged. He promised to email us with more details in the next week or so, and he followed through.   A few of the things that were most meaningful in his email were: "I am truly sorry to hear about the challenges you have faced with the storage of your wife's wheelchair during your travels with us. It is disheartening to learn that you have e...

  He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement. Jonah 4:2  The Ninevites were Jonah’s enemies. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which had harassed and terrorized Israel for a long time. In many ways, it could be likened to our modern enemy of al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and other groups have kept the world on its toes, always waiting for the next bomb to drop, both literally and figuratively.   On September 11 th , 2001, they perpetrated multiple acts of terrorism on the US using planes to crash into both of the Twin Towers in New York City as well as the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers on the airplane banded together to stop ...