Salty Zebra

  Then you turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you.  Psalm 30:11-12  Earlier in this study, I wrote about the four steps of lament: turning to God, complaining, asking for what you need, and trusting God for its outcome. This week it looks like we are focusing on the fourth step, trusting God.  When we express our trust in God that He will take care of us, provide for our needs, and deal with whatever situation we are facing, in that very moment our prayer is answered. Once we’ve come to a place where we can say, “So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you” (Psalm 30:12), our hope is secured and our heart can be at peace. We don’t have to wait to see the fruition of our hopes because they are certain and we can live in them today! When we enter into this frame of mind...

  For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:38-39 RSV Nothing can separate us from the love of God: Not Death : For absent from the body means I will be present with the Lord. ( 2 Corinthians 5:8 ) Not Life : There are many distractions and temptations in this life. But, in Christ, as we walk in the Holy Spirit, we will see them for what they are and be able to choose life with Him instead. ( Galatians 5:16 ) Not Angels : Ok, this one confused me a little. Why would angels want to separate us from God? But as I looked into it, according to Matthew Henry , this can refer to both “good angels” and “bad angels,” or demons. Remember, Satan and his army of demons were once angels and fell from heaven when they rebelled against God. And God’s Word s...

  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts .    When we found out that I was going to have to do radiation therapy, my husband started dreaming of a lounge. Initially it was called the "Rest Room", but when we talked about it, it sounded a lot like restroom, and that's just a strange place to hang out with people 😂, so my kids renamed it the "Lounge." Always with taking care of me front-of-mind, he wanted to make sure he'd be able to keep an eye on me and be available if I needed him while I recuperated from radiation. In February, my son moved into his own home and vacated the room across the hall from my husband's office, creating the perfect space. That way, my husband could work and still feel like ...

  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?   Romans 8:31-32  In his commentary , David Guzik states, “One person plus God makes an unconquerable majority.” This morning, as I considered these verses, a great number of opponents came to mind. At first, I thought this was a rhetorical question, “who can be against us?” But as I consider it further, I wonder if it doesn’t go deeper than that. If God is for us, who has a chance against us?   In this world we will have trouble ( John 16:33 ). This is a certainty, Jesus declared it. That trouble often comes in the form of someone coming against us, whether it’s a person, Satan and his minions, or even ourselves. This passage doesn’t state that no one will come against us, but that their efforts are in vain. When they do, they come against us + God. We are not ...

  In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;   Romans 8:26 NASB  On Friday nights, I get to hang out with my family, including my little nephews. They are 3 and 5, full of energy and spunk. The littlest has a thing for cookies. He always wants cookies. Before dinner. After dinner. While he is actively eating another cookie, this guy wants a cookie! If we gave him a cookie every time he asked for one, he’d never eat anything else, and as you can imagine, that wouldn’t go well for the growth and strength of his little body. But it’s awfully hard to say, “No” to that sweet little ask. As adults, we know that it is not best for him to eat cookies all day long every day, but he doesn’t understand that. Cookies taste good and they are fun to eat! That’s all he sees. If we say, “No,” he is deeply disappointed. He doesn’t get what he wants. We seem m...

 Radiation is a big deal. My husband keeps reminding me of that. Everything I've read on the subject tells me that I will be wiped out. My brain will not function. I will not be able to maintain the complicated systems that I've put in place for our life and finances. So, today I simplify.  For the last year, I've really enjoyed using the Door Dash and Instacart benefits on several of the credit cards I've opened. In fact, I've gotten up to $40 in free groceries from DoorDash and $60 in free groceries from Instacart every month! This is really handy, and fun if I'm being honest, but it takes time, effort, and a lot of thought. I have to pick my moment, ordering from Door Dash when DashMart has a good sale, ordering $12 here and $22 there from Instacart. You see, in order to receive these benefits, each card has to be used on a different order. This came out to as many as nine different orders per month. And these orders had to be carefully curated to come in as ...

  We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)   Romans 8:24-25 NLT  Hope. We delved into it yesterday, but today it becomes more real, more palpable. Let’s dig in! Today’s verse says that we were given “this” hope when we were saved. What hope is that? Well, it came in the previous verse: And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.   Romans 8:23   When we were saved, God gave us the future hope of realizing our full rights as His adopted children, including our heavenly bodies. These bodies will not know pain or suffering, decay...