The FOLR 1 Gene

Early last month, Michelle Obama spent time in Atlanta promoting her "Let's Move" campaign. As she stood in front of an audience, encouraging exercise and activity, I sat in an office across town, listening as a Dr. Shoffner explained my need for rest. "For every fifteen minutes of housework you do," he said, "you should rest for thirty."

Do the math. It's complicated.

Instead of moving, I sit. Instead of engaging in activity, I watch NCIS, House, and sometimes even Bones. I'm a crazed TV head hoping that months of shortened activity will allow for more movement down the road.

Further testing by Dr. Shoffner found a mutation in my FOLR 1 (or the folate receptor) gene. That gene serves as the carrier molecule that transports metabolized folic acid across my blood brain barrier. Due to the mutation, it's not doing it's job well. So the med that worked wonders in August (by boosting my metabolized folic acid intake) isn't quite as effective in the long haul. Couple that with mitochondrial disease, and I find when I really pay attention to my body, it requires a much slower pace than I like.

I'm the mom who once smuggled Bibles into China. The mom who roller skated, boogy boarded, and rode bikes on vacation. I'm even the mom who once flew to LA with her young boys in the middle of the night and had to sleep in the terminal lobby on baggage boxes (with strangers) while waiting an early morning departure that would get us to Phoenix. And all that to avoid termites back home... another story for another time.

Bottom line, this TV head lady drives me crazy.

I've tried to write about it a few times but have shrunk back instead. It's hard to put words on paper when I don't feel like the me that I am. But if I don't put it out there, if I don't face it in print, I'm afraid I'll never get to the stories that count.

Phillipians 4: 12-13 states, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want..." (whether living large or sitting still...) "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." (NIV)

I hadn't considered until just now that sitting still requires as much strength as living large and that accepting limits is as challenging as managing endless opportunities. No matter what end of the spectrum we live on, in plenty or in want, living with contentment can only be accomplished when we're plugged into the source of true strength.

Somehow that helps today: plugging into strength will help me rest.

It's not the same as roller skating, but I think I can lean in and let Him be my strength in weakness.