Struggling with Corn

I’d appreciate your prayers.  I’ve been really struggling with corn lately.

I’ve been having reactions to corn for about 2 years now.  The first few months I stopped eating corn to the best of my knowledge and tried to treat the rash on my neck and chest with natural rash remedies such as vitamin E and C.  It only got worse.  After visiting a herbalist in Montgomery, a whole new world of what corn is opened up to me.  For starters, I learned that my rash “treatment” of vitamin E and C is actually derived from corn.

I found a list of 200 things that can mean corn such as salt, sugar, natural flavorings and many more that I can’t spell.  I started reading labels more carefully and eating more from scratch.  I discovered that I can’t even touch corn with out having a reaction.  It was in my shampoo, tooth paste, everything.  I avoided all I could and started feeling much better.

Then we moved here.  I ate lots of comfort food, gained weight and my rash returned.

Several weeks ago I went back on my gluten-free, ‘corn’-free fast.  Fast – that’s what it feels like – a forced fast, but also a daily offering of prayer as I don’t eat what I’d like to or what is convenient and try to find things that are safe to eat.  Sometimes it seams like it’d be easier just to stop eating all together.

It’s difficult and frustrating to me to try to educate myself on corn – it’s such a huge, complicated subject and I have so many other things I’d rather spend my life on.  Sometimes I wish I could hire someone to come show me what is corn and gluten free, where to buy it and how to cook it.  There are a several Trader Joe’s products on the corn free lists.. we don’t have one…

This summer I’ve been forced into trying to learn more by a bad spell.  It’s not bad now, but constantly irritating under the surface and makes it difficult maintain a pleasant disposition and has led to this post.  I keep discovering things I been eating, drinking or touching that come from corn.  And have I mentioned that we are surrounded by corn fields?  Our house may even be sitting in what was a corn field just a few years ago.

Learning about corn is hard because it’s comparatively a rare allergy to have, it’s basically in and on everything and not labeled as clearly as nuts, or eggs or even gluten.   The research can also be so depressing.  I learned last week that a lot of my other symptoms such as urinary and sinus infections can be caused by a reaction to corn.  Then today I learned that the wax used on the produce in the grocery stores is often derived from corn.  I guess it’s time to find a farmer’s market.

Please pray for me.. healing would be nice.. more wisdom.. lots more patience.. more of Jesus..

I do have one praise report.  Before Passover every year the Jews are required to clean their houses top to bottom.  It’s where we get the idea of Spring cleaning.  They are not to leave on speck of dust anywhere in their house – because it could be a speck of leaven – which represents pride and sin in our hearts.

Passover night they play a hide and seek game where the parents hide 10 pieces of leavened bread around the house for the kids to find.  After all 10 are found they pray something like, “Let any leaven which we have not found be as if it never existed.”  Grace covers the law.  Good thing because it’s impossible to keep.

Remembering this I felt like God said that when I eat in a public place and can’t possibly know if or not the food I am eating is corn free that I can pray, “Let any corn that may be in this food be as if it never existed.”  This was a big breakthrough for me.  I wanted to be able to pray, “No poisonous thing will harm me.” and eat the corn chips and all, but didn’t feel like God gave me that freedom.. so I avoid the things most likely made with corn; salad dressing and the like and pray over the rest.

Thank you,

J