Salty Zebra

  Now that I've fulfilled my major bucket list trip taking my family to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where are my dreams taking me? To Australia of course! The land down under has been beckoning me for a really long time, but I never thought of it as being a realistic possibility until recent years. And now my health is getting more challenging, so its possibility seems less and less likely. If this is going to happen, I'm going to have to be really creative !  The first barrier to visiting Australia is the extremely long plane flight . The average flight time is around 18 hours, with some being as long as 35-40 hours with various layovers. I really struggle with the 6ish hour flight to Florida, so I can't imagine how my body would hold up with this! I decided that if I was to fly, I would need to do it in business class, ideally in a lay-flat seat. As you can imagine, this is no small expense, running upwards of $8,000 per person round trip. Since I'd need to...

 No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.  John 15:13-14  How am I laying my life down for my friends? Jesus clearly did this for me. He laid down His Heavenly life, deigning to come to earth and live as a human. He laid down His opportunity for earthly fame and stature, instead choosing to do the right thing over the popular thing. Then He gave up His earthly life, choosing to die a horrible death on the cross, to pay for my sins, so that I could be with Him forever. He did this for me while I was still His enemy, before I was even born, knowing all that I would do apart from and against Him. That is true love. How am I to love like that?   Jesus left His comfortable, perfect place to come down to earth. Where I live is certainly comfortable though I’d hardly call it perfect. My husband is presently in the bathroom stripping and recaulking everything in an ongoing battle wi...

  Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.   John 14:23-24  Sometimes it is difficult for my mind to process great big concepts. Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s difficult to process little ones! I think that in times like these, God often helps me by giving me something more concrete to understand. Today’s verses were difficult for me to grasp, and so God showed me something a little closer to home. Our relationship with God is mirrored in marriage. As Christ loves the church, so a husband is to love his wife ( Ephesians 5:25 ).   In Mark 10:7-9 , Jesus talks about the mysteries of the intimacy of marriage. He says that the man will leave his father and mother, all that he has known during his life, and be joined into a new union, one where he ...

Image Credit Canva Dream Lab  Congratulations! You've been officially deemed disabled. Welcome to a life of luxury and ease living off the government! Wait, you mean that's not the case? You're telling me I've been misled by the internet AGAIN!!!  Yep, hate to break it to you, but disability's not all it's cracked up to be! Turns out it's much  harder to qualify for this than you could ever imagine, and even if you do, you're not set for life.   Disability law has become big business in America. Why? Because nearly EVERYONE, even a paraplegic, is denied disability upon their first application. I say nearly because there are few exceptions that make the rule, but for the majority of people, even with a totally legitimate claim, they'll receive a denial. This has created a whole contingent of lawyers whose entire career is made up of helping people receive the disability benefits they need. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty messed up to...

Image Credit: CoPilot Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation had been laid on rock. Matthew 7:24-25  In storytelling there is a long history behind the “ Rule of Three .” Jesus utilized this mechanic as well, I’m thinking of the story of the Good Samaritan. The first two people who came down the road and encountered an injured man crossed to the other side and moved on while the third person, the Good Samaritan, stopped and helped him. In our more modern era, the first story demonstrating this rule that comes to my mind, is that of the “Three Little Pigs.” These pigs, brothers in some tellings, are building their homes. They know there is danger from a “Big, Bad Wolf,” but the first two are more interested in their own comfort and entertainment and they build their houses in a quick slip-shod manner, jus...

  And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.   1 John 3:24  It’s a circular scenario. God gave us His Spirit to dwell within us to convict (convince) us of sin and righteousness and judgement ( John 16:8 ). His Spirit draws us into His Word where we learn more and more of the goodness He has for us, and His ways, which are so much better than the world’s ways. As we come to understand this, we long to obey more and more, seeing the blessings and benefits of living according to God’s will. This causes us to seek to draw closer to God’s Holy Spirit, which then directs us more deeply into His Word, and the cycle continues.   Do you ever wonder if you have the Holy Spirit in you? How can we know? I mean, this is a pretty important thing. It is by the seal of the Holy Spirit that we can know that we are in Christ and admitted into His Holy presence forever. Lots o...

I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. John 15:11-12  Each morning we wake up and we feel something. I’m not talking about our bodies, yes, there are a lot of feelings there when I wake up, I’m talking about our hearts. What hits your heart first thing in the morning? A need for coffee? Excitement for the day ahead? Dread? Do you feel joy or despair? Would you like to feel joy? I’d like to share with you how. Oftentimes we are woken up by an alarm. If this reminds us of where we need to be and how late we already are, it is hardly a foundation for joy! A common thing to do these days when you first wake up is to grab your phone. You open it up and see your notifications. You are reminded of an appointment coming up that you’re not necessarily excited about. You have an awkward email you have to reply to. And then you see the news. I don’t have to say any mor...