Salty Zebra

  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.   Ephesians 4:2-3  Seeing this passage transports me back in time to February of 2019. At that time, I was a part of a beautiful ministry at our church that had brought hundreds of people that wouldn’t have darkened the door of a sanctuary into a space where they heard about God’s love. The thing is, we have an enemy that doesn’t like such ministries and so he sowed seeds of discord in our church over it. A small, but vocal, group decided that what we were doing in the ministry (Christian Yoga) wasn’t in line with what they thought the church should be doing, and they actively, vehemently, went about seeking to destroy it. I talked with them, shared my teaching and lesson plans, invited them to sit in on classes, and at every step they agreed that what I was sharing was completely Biblical, and yet they continued t...

  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.   Ephesians 3:20-21  Some of my family members have become involved in a ministry called Celebrate Recovery (CR). This ministry is, “a safe place to find freedom from your hurts, hang-ups, and habits.” Like AA, they utilize a tool called the Serenity Prayer. If you haven’t heard it, it goes like this: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.   This simple prayer, written nearly 100 years ago, has made a difference in millions of lives. I’m certain that when it’s author, Reinhold Niebuhr, wrote it, it came out of a time of personal growth and challenge and he had no idea how incredibly God would use it in the world – around the world. We h...

  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19  I’ve spent a lot of time lately praying for my family. We’ve had some pretty big upheavals and the ground feels shaky beneath us. Do you know what I’ve been praying for them? It’s very much like what Paul prayed for the Ephesians in today’s passage.   My first and highest priority prayer for my family is always that they would draw near to God and find their salvation in Him. I pray that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. I know that even that faith comes from God, and so I a...

  I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. Ephesians 3:13 NIV  Again, today, I am focusing not on the suggested SOAP verse for our study, but on the verse that comes after, Ephesians 3:13.  In this verse, Paul asks the Ephesians, a church birthed from his missionary journeys, his spiritual children, to not be discouraged by his sufferings. Indeed, he conveys that his sufferings are for them and they are, in fact, the Ephesians’ glory. All of that can be a little much to take in, to understand, so I’d like to break it down a little.   While he was writing Ephesians, Paul was under house arrest in Rome. He was there because the Jews in Jerusalem had accused him of ministering to the Gentiles, specifically bringing them into the temple – which he had not done. He was, in fact, imprisoned and suffering for them. But Paul goes on to say that his sufferings are not only on their behalf, but also for their glory...

   Sometimes life isn't ideal. Let's face it, most of the time it isn't! So, we do what we need to, to make things work. In my "Making It Work" posts, I share life hacks and ideas that have helped me so that maybe, they can help someone else too. I hope you enjoy!   In past hospital stays, I had been given a puny, almost worthless little "kidney shaped emesis basin" when I was nauseous.   Needless to say, these don't do much to contain mess and are fiddly to try to hold when you're very sick. During my tenure at the hospital (several different ER visits and stays, including nearly 2 weeks in the neuro ICU) over the course of my three brain surgeries in 2023, I became acquainted with a much more practical, useful tool, the emesis bag. In  part 14  of The Whole Story of my Brain tumor and surgeries (really the story is ongoing, but this is the name of the series), I mentioned my use of " green bags " as well as a funny happenstance where...

   Have you ever been concerned about pickpockets and thieves while you are out and about in your travels? You should be! More than 400,000 instances of pickpocketing occur EVER DAY (1)! In New York, 3,000 pickpocketing incidents are reported each month, and you know there are more that are not. Internationally, Italy has the highest likelihood of being pickpocketed with 463 mentions per million visitors, followed closely by France and Spain. I've tried different theft deterrents in the past: money belts worn under my pants or a pouch worn under my shirt. While I've never been pickpocketed from these locations, neither is it very practical to get out my ID, cash, or credit card when I need to purchase something. So when I was preparing for my Transatlantic cruise back in January, I wanted to find a better option. I'd been seeing adds for travel purses and I started looking into them. Today, I'd like to share with you what I found and how I've been using it all year!...

  Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,  “What can God do with me?” you may have asked. You may see yourself, as I do, as small and insignificant in the Kingdom of God. I jokingly mentioned in an earlier post that I sometimes wonder if, in the Body of Christ, I am the appendix. We see people out there like Billy Graham and Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer and wonder how someone like us could ever measure up, could ever do something big.   When I was a young mom, I used to read a lot of missionary biographies. I was so inspired by how they headed out into the unknown with nothing but a pith helmet and their Bible. They suffered tragedy and loss, but in the end, something great and amazing came from their ministry. A hundred, or two hundred years later, people were still reading and writing about what God had done through them. I really thought this was my destiny...