Salty Zebra

  We all want to be strong. Strong enough to do it on our own. Strong enough to open the jar of pickles without help. Strong enough to meet our own needs as well as help others. We see weakness as a sign of, well, weakness. But scripture looks at it a little differently. Here’s a few examples: [2Co 12:9 NIV] 9 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. [2Co 12:10 NIV] 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. [Rom 8:26 NIV] 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. [1Co 1:27 NIV] 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of th...

  So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; Let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. Luke 1: 38 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. Luke 9: 23-24  May your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   Matthew 6: 10 I can picture today’s verses being sung by a choir of nuns as I walk slowly down the open hallway of a convent deep in the European mountains. Melodramatic, I know, but I did love The Sound of Music as a child. We make these promises to God. Our lips move, and our hearts want to mean what we’re saying, but until we are faced with a real situation, it’s all just desire. God, we want what You want. We trust You. Then the stuff hits the fan. Our prayers change. Fix it God! Heal my child! Sa...

It’s nearly 2AM last night and we’re trudging off the plane and through the airport. Ok, it’s really 10:45pm, but my body says it’s almost 2AM because it’s still on East coast time. We’ve gathered all our belongings, reassembled my wheelchair, and used the restroom and I’m just going through the steps to call the parking lot shuttle when I hear our last name called out over the loudspeaker followed by, “Please bring your ID to the podium.” My husband, hauling our luggage and pushing my wheelchair, stops short. “Did you hear that?” I look over and notice that the gate next to us has a flight heading to Anchorage and realize they must be calling our daughter! What a fun coincidence that we would be in the exact same place at the same time when she tends to jet set around the world! But as I look around, I don’t see her anywhere. I pull out my phone and call her, straight to voicemail. But just in case I try again and this time she picks up. She’s in the middle of TSA, where you’re not ...

This week I had the wonderful blessing of being able to attend the EDS Society's 2024 Global Learning Conference in Philadelphia. This year's theme was EDS from Head to Toe and they covered how EDS affects bodies in every area.  EDS is a collection of genetic conditions that affect the collagen in a person's body. There are potentially more than thirteen different types. I have the most common of these, hEDS or Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. At this time, about 1 person in 5,000 is diagnosed with this, making it a rare disease. Experts believe, however, that it is drastically under diagnosed and that the incidence is far more likely to be 1 in 500, making it as common as diabetes. So why isn't it diagnosed more? Simple. Doctor's don't know about it. In most medical schools, EDS is a paragraph in a chapter about rare diseases at best. Unless they are exposed to it for some reason, most medical professionals don't have EDS on their diagnostic radar.  So w...

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9 Long ago, I used to struggle with blame. Whose fault was it that something had been done or not done? Whose responsibility was it? Keeping track of everything was exhausting, and left me feeling bitter and very unhappy. These days, I’m so glad to say, my home is run far more on grace. If something needs to be done, I either do it or ask for help with it. If something gets done, I am blessed and grateful for it. It feels so much better. The other thing I struggled with was worry. That’s something that will eat you alive! Especially with kids. There is no end of things to worry about. I would worry all day and all night. Do you know what the cure for worry is? Faith. I had to start handing all my worries over to God and trusting Him that He was able to handle them and He knew best. I had to recognize that I wasn’t i...

 Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28: 18-20 The ultimate goal of parenting is successfully launching our progeny out into the world and watching them flourish (you thought I was going to say grandkids, didn’t you?). Jesus managed to do this with His disciples in only three years and we are typically given more like 18-20. He got to start with adults, you might argue, making it easier to teach them! Ah, but He also had to UNteach them! By the time Jesus got them they already had a lifetime of bad habits developed that Jesus had to patiently work with and love them through. One of those bad habits, Judas’ greed, even got Him killed. But Jesus didn’t have to deal ...

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest-ready fields.”   Matthew 9:36-38 When the kids were younger, they got to participate in ministry with us in lots of ways. They served as helpers at Sports Camp and VBS at church. They acted and directed in our church’s dinner theater. As a teen, my daughter got to go on a mission trip with my husband to the country she was born in, Liberia, West Africa. Most of them have served at the homeless mission with my husband both in the kitchen serving dinner and out on Search and Rescue visiting the homeless camps. One of our sons even got to serve in the -3 degree freezer alongside my husband for a day sorting it out. They grew up in an atmosphere of service, seeing its importance and getting to experi...