Salty Zebra

  The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.   Jonah 3:5  We’ve all seen it, even if only on TV, the guy with the sandwich board calling people to repent. The end of the world is near. Does anyone take him seriously? I doubt it. He walks around the city day after day, night after night, warning people that their sin has a price, and the bill is coming due. Kind people might smile and nod at him. Mean people might mock him or even throw things at him. Most people ignore and avoid him. What would you do? What did you think when you saw this post?   Jonah entered the city of Nineveh immediately after being “disgorged” from having spent three days in the belly of a whale. The man had to look (and smell) a sight! How did he approach the city? He wasn’t happy to be there, of that we can be certain. Was he stomping? Had he picked up a large walking stick along the way? His presence c...

  Brain tumors and Brain surgery do crazy things to people! To be honest, we don't actually know if my current challenges were caused by either of these, the 12 weeks of intense IV antibiotics I had to take, or something else entirely (hey there, perimenopause! I see you!). So what are the things I'm dealing with? Blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Prior to my brain surgeries, these were completely normal. The only indications I'd had of something potentially being off was during each of my three pregnancies when I consistently tested positive with the initial glucose test and had to return for the four hour test for gestational diabetes, which always came back negative. Apart from these, I've never had a problem with my A1c or my cholesterol levels.   My doctor's theory is that either the trauma inflicted on my brain during my surgeries and healing or the tumor itself has caused my body to go wonky. Regardless of the cause, though, I am not faced with the reali...

 As unbelievable as it is, it turns out that not everyone loves cruising as much as I do! My husband is one of those "not everyone"s. He's a great sport and more than willing to come along with me on my adventures, but it's not really his thing. What does he like to do? Head to a city and just go out exploring. I so appreciate him joining me on cruises lately and I wanted to meet him where he's at. So I set about finding a city we could get to that I could get around in my wheelchair well. This matters a lot because I can't get more than a few blocks without the chair these days. I have two permanently sprained ankles and walking is more than a little difficult.   Until you have to be aware, most people don't recognize what it's like to try to get around a place in a wheelchair. Are there good sidewalks? In New Orleans we encountered some terrible  ones that had my husband pushing me down the middle of the road! In Antigua, Guatemala the sidewalks wer...

Note: This is the fourth and final post in a series of posts focusing on the illegal immigrant situation in the US. While much of this is informed by my personal feelings and opinions, I do not claim to be unbiased, I have tried to share sources whenever possible. Please feel free to share with me your thoughts, but I ask that you would do so in love. Any comments given that are hurtful will be deleted, though they cannot be deleted from my mind, so consider our relationship when posting please.   Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons  I put off writing this post, I think. It's the hardest one for me to write because the subject is so precious and therefore so scary to me. Today I'm writing about how illegal immigration affects children. One wouldn't think that it's a major problem, but the more I learn, the more concerns I have. And it's not just immigrant children that are affected, other children are as well. According to this article , nearly 150,000 come to the b...

  and said, "I called out to the LORD from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer.   Jonah 2:2  What does it take to get your attention? Can you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit or do you have to be on death’s door before you’re willing to listen? Or maybe, like me, you hear God and set out with the best intentions to obey Him, but then you get distracted or forget.  I forget what I'm doing in the middle of brushing my teeth, but then I have a brain Tumor so they tell me it's normal.   Jonah was running from God,  and he wasn't too ashamed to admit it, the Bible tells us he told the sailors on the ship exactly what he was doing.  I explored the idea in my last Jonah post that perhaps he was even proud of his choice, seeing himself as a martyr,  standing in the gap. In any case, God knew exactly what it would take to get through to him.  For some this could be as simpl...

He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that the sea will calm down for you, because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.”   Jonah 1:12  Jonah had made up his mind. He wasn’t going to obey God, no matter what it took. He quickly packed a bag and headed to the sea where he could get a boat literally to the ends of the earth, as far away from where God had told him to go as possible. He wasn’t going to go preach to the Ninevites, and nothing God said would change his mind. Firmly entrenched in his plan, he went to sea. He wasn’t secretive, wasn’t hiding what he was doing. Was he proud of it? Only he would know. Perhaps he felt a deep sense of Nationalism, and that led to a pride for how he was sacrificing his life in order to prevent their enemy from hearing God’s truth and being drawn into His kingdom. They didn’t deserve forgiveness! The things they had done were terrible, he couldn’t abide by their repentance and restoration. So much bette...

Note: This is the third in a series of posts focusing on the illegal immigrant situation in the US. While much of this is informed by my personal feelings and opinions, I do not claim to be unbiased, I have tried to share sources whenever possible. Please feel free to share with me your thoughts, but I ask that you would do so in love. Any comments given that are hurtful will be deleted, though they cannot be deleted from my mind, so consider our relationship when posting please.   “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  As I mentioned in my last post on this topic, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) seems to indicate that the only way to apply for asylum today is if you are already in the country (1). So the logical question follows, why don’t people just ask for asylum after they enter the country? Sadly, it seems that for many, if not most, this will do no good.   A number of people entered the country illegall...