Salty Zebra

 I have a condition called foot drop. It comes about when there is an impingement, or pressure, on the nerve somewhere between my brain and my foot. It causes my foot to periodically, and unexpectedly, not lift my toe up all the way when I'm walking. When I am wearing just socks, this usually doesn't cause much of a problem, but when I am wearing shoes, it causes me to trip over my own feet.  Historically, when this happens, I feel really dumb how foolish am I that I can't even pick up my feet right when I'm walking? But my doctor, recently, taught me that this condition is inherent in my system. No matter how much my brain tells my foot to pick up my toe, my foot is not getting the message. I could look at my foot the whole time I'm walking and tell my foot with every step to pick up my toe, and I would still not do it every once in a while. Now, perhaps this is because my foot doesn't have ears to hear my mouth speaking, but that's what nerves are for. And...

   I have a couple of people in my life that ask me about the acronyms I use sometimes, so just to clarify, ICYMI stands for In Case You Missed It, which is exactly what today's post is about. Today I will look back on the last six weeks of studying God's wisdom, something I have been very much looking forward to. Sometimes these wrap up posts are a bit of a chore, but this time I have so enjoyed the study that I am excited about looking back on it and remembering all that God has spoken to my heart!  The first week of our study we focused on God's wisdom for our relationships and family. Our first day focused on the importance of balancing truth and mercy , something we are not prone to doing on our own. Next, we looked at how the relationships in our lives keep us sharp and how important it is to surround ourselves with people who are not entirely like-minded. When we live in those relationships though, ones where we may not feel the same way about everything, it's s...

  God spoke to my heart recently at church and the message has stayed with me so strongly that I really wanted to share it with you today. I'll wait to post it though so that I can link the sermon, although the song will take longer to be recorded. You see, our worship pastor, Michael, is also a song writer and God has used him to share some beautiful, impactful messages through music. A few weeks back, he shared a new song he had written and it touched my heart. This week, he shared the song again and invited us to sing along, but it spoke to me even more deeply because of the message a guest speaker had given. One of our fellow church members, Bryan, spoke yesterday on John 5:2-9 , the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. He focused on Jesus' words in verse 6, “Do you want to get well?” This may have seemed like a strange question, but there are lots of reasons that someone may not want to get well. Illness may be all they've ever known. This man may ha...

  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.   Romans 12:2  God made us, intentionally, with a hole in our heart. We feel it deeply. We ache for it to be filled. We can’t be satisfied, we can’t be at peace, until our heart’s hunger is satiated. This causes people to do all kinds of things. You may have heard of people travelling to India on a journey to find themselves. Some join a monastery. Others devote their lives to research, finding a cure for the world’s ills. There’s a deep, driving need in all of us, and until we recognize what it is, and meet it, we will feel a constant pressure to do so.   The world has devised a plethora of options to stuff inside this hole and see if it fixes it. There are the darker vices – gambling, alcohol, drugs – things that will take hold of your life and take you where you do n...

  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.   2 Corinthians 9:7  How are you? It’s a question we ask others all the time, but do we really mean it? Are we really interested in how they are doing? Much of the time, I would guess we are not, because we don’t even pause to hear the answer or follow up. Our culture, at least where I live, has come to see it as a greeting, not a question. We are conditioned to reply “fine” or “great” or “ok.” It is very uncommon to hear anyone say anything else. My husband went through a season where he defied the cultural norms of this question-greeting and he actually followed up on it. He would ask people what “ok” meant to them, where their percentage was. Did ok mean 51%? 60%? 75%? He wanted to know how people were really doing, and wanted them to know that he cared about it. It led to dozens (hundreds?) of interesting conversations, and all...

Image created with the assistance of ChatGpt   She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.   Proverbs 31:26  Proverbs 31 has always held a special power over me. It reflects a goal that I feel I fall far short of and could never achieve, but I so desperately want to. One year, when I only had two little ones, My husband gave me the most thoughtful gift for Mother’s Day. He and the boys (ok, him – they were way to young to help!) wrote out how they felt like I fulfilled each line of this poem. It met me in a place I so needed and encouraged me in my motherhood and wifely duties. Now, I didn’t think then, nor do I now upon reflection, that I actually fulfilled those things, but hearing from someone whose opinion I so respected that he felt that I did meant the world to me!   Proverbs is a book of wisdom and so it only makes sense that wisdom would be one of the critical aspects of the “Wife of Noble Character.” And how is her wisdom expresse...

 I didn't grow up in a Christian denomination that observes Lent, so for most of my life all I knew about it was that it had to do with preparing for Easter and giving something up, like TV. So, what is Lent? What does the Bible have to say about it? Should we give something up for a while before Easter?  As Advent is a season of preparation before Christmas, so Lent is a season intended to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter. Advent is a time of excitement and wonder. Lent, on the other hand, has a more somber, penitent tone to it. It is intended to help us recognize our brokenness as humans and our need for a Savior (1). It began early in the history of Christianity with new believers who were planning to be baptized on Easter Sunday fasting on the Friday and Saturday before (2). Over time, the church began fasting for different periods of time and in different ways leading up to Easter until finally, in the fourth century, a standardized Lenten calendar was est...

   Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, Ephesians 5:15  Interestingly, we explored this verse last Spring while doing the study, For Such a Time as This . What I wrote about then holds true today, but I feel like it has just a little more depth, a little more insight. I love how God’s Word is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword ( Hebrews 4:12 ). We can look at the same verse over and over, and each time we learn something new, but perhaps this is partly because we are not the same person that looked at it before. Since then, we’ve grown, changed, learned new things. The verses are the same, but we are not.  When you zoom out and look at the whole passage in Ephesians, we see that, according to verse 17 , living as wise involves understanding the Lord’s will. A few weeks back we talked about how to discern God’s will and growing in our ability to hear and trust His guidance. God brought Isaiah 30:21 to my attention that...

  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.   1 Corinthians 4:2  This last year, God has been putting on my heart that I need to make sure that what I have isn’t just sitting there, it is accomplishing some growth. The clearest way to see this is with our money. An interesting blessing that came through my husband’s layoff last year was that I became more involved in the finances, much more involved. One of the things that stood out to me initially was that we had a significant amount of money sitting in an account that didn’t really earn much interest. Much of our savings my husband had put into laddered CDs that were earning better, but this money, which we had intentionally kept liquid in case we needed it, was not pulling its weight. I learned about High-Yield Savings (HYS) accounts last summer and we moved the money there where it has been happily growing ever since. I even looked at what bills we paid just a few times a year, ...

  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.   1 Peter 4:11  I’m a very open person. I’ve been accused of “processing publicly.” When something’s on my heart I share it, and I don’t limit it to the people in my house or in my home group, I share it with the world on my blog. Well, I share it with the people that God puts my blog in front of and I’m not entirely sure how many or who that will be, so I figure it’s just public knowledge. In the suggested reading today ( Matthew 5:14-16 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 ), Jesus talks about how we should be like a city on a hill, letting our light shine and not diminishing it. Paul also commissions us to use the gifts that God has given and allow them to glorify Him.   Today’s verse tells me to live at 100%. I...

  "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.'" Luke 14:28-30  In Western Washington, if you drive out to the coast, you’ll pass through some beautiful country. About halfway between I-5 and the ocean, you come across the little town of Elma. There are forests and hills, rivers and even giant metal sculptures to keep you entertained. You might drive right past without noticing them during the day, but if you make the drive at night, you’ll notice flashing lights on top of two giant towers up on the hill. These towers, WNP3 and WNP5 collectively known as the Satsop Power Plant, are the stark reminders of one of the biggest failures in our region, really our country. Let me tell you the story.   Back in th...

Image created with Gemini But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.“ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 1 Corinthians 12:9  Have you ever given God a wish list of how you think He should use you in this world? Almost like a resume, have you said that you are really good at certain things and would really shine if He gave you an opportunity in a certain area? I know I have.   In my young adulthood I wanted to be a missionary. Many people in my family have done this for generations and I’ve dreamed about it since I was a child. I’ve read missionary biographies, sat on the edge of my seat during missions presentations at church, sought out opportunities to visit with missionaries, everything I could think of. I prayed, oh how I prayed! I went on a couple of short-term mission trips which taught me so much and blessed me abundantly, but the door never opened ...

  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11  Have you ever been sure that God is doing a thing, but you can’t quite see it yet? Does everything just look like an impossible mess around you, but you’re absolutely certain that God’s going to work it out somehow? Take heart, He absolutely will! Today’s verse promises us that God will put everything together just right in His perfect timing. If things aren’t right yet, God’s not finished yet.   You know who had to live this out in a very challenging way? David. He had a wild youth serving as his family’s designated shepherd, watching over the flocks and keeping them safe, but this was not seen as an important or valuable job in his day. In fact, as the eighth and youngest son in the family, he wasn’t even invited to dinner when Samuel the prophet came for a visit. The family didn’t know th...