Genesis 35:1

"God said to Jacob, 'Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an alter there to the God who appeared to you..."

What if we put ourselves into this story? What if we would listen when God tells us to go somewhere? To settle and make an alter to God, no matter what? Because God has appeared to us! Let us praise the Holy One!

Far too often we will not go, settle, and praise, because we forget Psalm 35:28 "My tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all day long." May we praise God is all circumstances!

The Little Couple

Yesterday afternoon my brain shut down, but my body refused to take a nap. As a result I found what is possibly my new favorite TV show, The Little Couple. Essentially it is the love story of Jen and Bill who both have been diagnosed with spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia, a form of what is commonly known as dwarfism. Jen is 3'2'' and Bill is 4'. It tells of their struggles living in a world that does not accommodate anyone less than average size, but once again, above all it is about their life together.

Unlike Jon and Kate, Bill and Jen have a different motive for doing the show, they want people to be aware of the lives of people who are not "normal" by societies standards, in order to raise awareness but also to express sameness.

There are two reasons that I appreciate this show:

1.) Jen did not get married until she was 34. Amen! After going through a Christian college that celebrates "ring by spring", I have been affirmed that it is okay not to be married at the rip age of 21 or 22 right after graduating from college. I feel so happy for my friends that this is their story, but I have been seeking some type of affirmation that it is okay if it is not mine.

2.) This is a wonderful story to use to teach people about ableism - or the conforming of the world to the standards of what is "normal". People act like they are doing Bill and Jen a favor when they give them what they need just to function. They need to adapt to an area instead of the area being adapted for them. And people on the streets treat them with sympathy or like a commodity. This couple is seeking to educate people out what it means to be "differently-abled". If viewed properly, so much can be learned from this couple.

No Easy Way

I have become increasingly aware of how my presence sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable. Sometimes when people first meet me and find out that I'm a vegetarian and see how thin I am, it spurs them to go onto crazy crazy diets, especially when they don't feel good about their own self-image. And it has happened once again while here in Texas. The woman I am living with is going on a diet of just eating lean chicken and salad. She is looking to me to affirm her eating habits, which I don't feel that I can whole heartily do. What most people don't realize is that since I'm a vegetarian and have trouble digesting some foods, that I'm keenly aware of what my body needs and how it should be prepared for me. I can't tell her what to eat. But it breaks my heart to see her not engage in the whole food pyramid in the quest to loose a few pounds.

It also is a struggle for me to watch people change their diet for a period of time, but not change their life habits. While I am not the type of girl to go to a gym, I do have a lifestyle based around walking. It's one of the reasons I love being here in Denison, I can literally walk everywhere that I need to be! It reminds me of Pittsburgh and downtown Madison and Oakland. God has blessed me with legs and I am going to use them as long as the distance permits (and sometimes even when the distance doesn't permit ;) ). To seek to change your diet, but not to adopt some type, any type, of physical movement isn't the way to go about changing yourself.

It's also hard for me to watch people try to seek out an easy way, be it just changing a few food items while keeping the way they are prepared (like frying vegetables), or refusing to exercise in some way shape or form. There is no easy way to being healthy. I can tell you straight up that being a vegetarian is not easy. It means being creative with food choices. Insisting that there be a vegetarian option. Seeking out someone to tell you what is in the dish before you. And sometimes hurting people's feelings, when they make you a dish out of love that you wouldn't be able to eat without becoming sick.

Our American culture tells us to seek out the easiest and quickest way - buy this pill, exercise this way, or just drink this liquid, but nothing has been proven to substitute engaging the food pyramid properly and moving your body. But that isn't what we want to hear, because it isn't easy.

Family in Christ

"'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother!'" Mark 3:33-35

I am blessed to have such a large family in Christ in addition to my wonderful biological family! Praise God!

Sabbath

"Then he said to them, 'The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath: so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.'" Mark 2:27-28

   This verse resonated at me this morning. I haven't been very faithful to observing Sabbath while here in Denison, either on Sunday or the daily times of rest. But God created the Sabbath for us, to bring us renewal for the tasks ahead of us. May I learn to honor what God has created. 

Softening Hearts

   We live in a world of coconut hearts. I'm not sure how many of you have tried to open a whole, fresh, coconut, but it is a process involving a hammer, nails, something to catch the milk, and then either more hammering or high heat from an oven. I often just give up when I try to open coconuts, settling for canned coconut milk and the dehydrated "meat" (ie shredded flakes) from the bakers isle. But when persistence gets the better of me, the reward of fresh milk and "meat" beats anything else. 

   So why am I explaining to you how to open a coconut? To make the point that the shell around the precious innards is so hard that it makes it a task demanding diligence in order to break it open and reap the tasty rewards. We live in a society where hearts are like coconuts, hard hard shells made from years of rejection and pain cover the vibrant part that beats life. And we are too lazy to break open people's hard hearts. We would rather be friends with people who have already had their shell broken away or we just assume that people with their shell will never change and accept their abrasiveness. But when we do that, we substitute the milk and meat of fresh life or the dehydrated stuff you get in the grocery store. We settle for the artificial instead of aspiring for what is true, because we live in a society that desires what is easiest and quickest with everything from how we eat to relationships. 

What if we read our Bibles?

  As I was doing devotions this morning I read from the 12th chapter of 2 Corinthians, in which Paul writes about the "thorn" that was given to him to keep him humble. "Three times I appealed to the Lord about this that it would leave me, but he said to me 'My grace is sufficient fro you, for power is made perfect in weakness.' So I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

  And as I read this I flashed back to the scene of the differently abled person being forced to the alter call on Sunday as well as a post I put up recently about the Disabled God. Why do we insist of trying to "heal" our thorns instead of using them to reflect the glory of God? Why do we try to make ourselves into God instead of embracing weaknesses as a sign of our fellow humanity with others? Oh Lord, forgive us for not recognizing the power of Christ in us or the beauty of others in all situations.