Break-Time

I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for the rest of April. We'll be picking back up in May with plenty of articles, pictures and Zest chapters. Note: the April recipes for TRM will be on here in a few weeks.

See you then!

7-With Zest in Life

Chapter 7 | Yellow Bunny

When they arrived home that evening, both Little White Bear and Blue Bear were very tired from their journey and had a lot on their minds. Because of this, they were not the ones to notice that a drab-yellow bunny with long ears and a short tail had followed them home from the meadow.

After each going into his own apartment, the bunny waited outside for LWBB to come back. Finally, in the bright, clear sunlight of the new day, Little White Bear stepped outside for his morning walk. He was surprised when he saw her, just a lonely little thing with curious eyes, and a wavering pink nose. He thought “Why didn’t she run away when I came out here? A normal bunny would be so shy, she would not delay her flee long enough to see who was approaching.

“Let me see if I can get her to come to me; maybe I should bring her to Nie so she can take care of her. Wait, would Nie want her? I think so. But perhaps I’d better check first.”

So Little White Bear started on his way. He had decided not to pick the bunny up but to go ask Nie first and find out what he should do from her. When he arrived at her well established and elegant new home, he was surprised to find that the drab yellow bunny had followed him all the way there! “Well,” he said out loud to himself, “I guess I don’t have to ask for help in bringing her here. She came on her own!”

Nie opened the door in jest after only one series of knocks. “Hello, do come in, Little White Bear and sit down. Have you had breakfast yet? And why are you here so early, and on the Sabbath, of all days! You know there is no school on the Sabbath, don’t you?” she eyed him skeptically. “The Sabbath is a day set apart by Yahweh, our Creator. On that day, we are not to do any work and not make anyone else do any either. That includes school in most cases. It is a day that is to be kept holy. You knew that, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yes indeed, Aunty, but you see, I have something to tell you. Or more or less show you. Let’s go out into the garden for a moment, can we?”

Nie, hand in hand with Little White Bear, was wondering around through the rows of green beans, slowly winding their ways up the poles and the peas, oh, such delicate little plants. They came to the sweet corn and sunflowers, and saw the row of vegetables that LWBB had planted all by themselves that spring. Radishes inter-planted with carrots and lettuce on the end.

“Well, look at that cute little bunny!” Nie exclaimed, “But how dirty she is.”

“When I first saw her, I thought so too,” Little White Bear agreed.

“You’ve seen this bunny before?” questioned Nie.“The same one? What are you talking about, Little White Bear?”

So Little White Bear told her all about coming home from the meadow and finding the bunny on the doorstep only that morning and his decision to come to her to get help in bringing the bunny back but instead, she just followed him right to her house!

“So I knocked on your door and tried to tell you about it then, but you were the one doing all the talking until we finally got out here in the garden so you could just see it for yourself.”

Nie decided it would be best to bring the drab yellow bunny into her house and clean her up.

“But Nie,” Little White Bear complained, “It’s the Sabbath, remember? And you said that we aren’t supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. Don’t you think you should wait to start until after sunset?”

You’re right, Little White Bear, but you see, if the task that lays ahead is something you want to do and it would be enjoyable, rather that something that takes a lot of work, it’s all right to do it, just as long as you stop when you grow tired and it starts feeling like a lot of work,” Nie explained.

They spent the next hour washing the bunny off and making her squeaky clean. Nie had found some mild, sweet smelling soap to use and when the bunny was all dry and comfortable, Nie gave Little White Bear permission to let Yellow Bunny outside to hop around and sniff in the garden.

“Is that her name?” asked Little White Bear.

“Yes, it is now,” replied Nie. “Yellow Bunny looks a lot brighter than she did when you brought her to me this morning, doesn’t she?”

“Do you know what I am going to do?” asked Nie.

“No, I don’t. What?” came the question in return.

“I am going to keep Yellow Bunny here with me and teach her to say words like I taught you and Blue Bear. She will attend my homeschool to learn and play, just as you and Blue Bear are already doing.”

“What a good idea,” thought LWB.

©2003 by S. Daniel Willard

The People Hardest to Love cont'd

Part 2 (click here to read the first part)
Another reason why the people closest to us are the hardest to love is that these close relationships force us to be authentic. When your boss spills his drink on your new sofa, you can give him a fake smile and tell him to forget about it. You may hate him with everything that is in you, but nobody’s going to know. For the carefully engineered distance required in business relationships is seldom violated. Now if your child spills his drink, you can bet he’s not getting the fake smile. Relationship forces authenticity in our love or in the failure to love.

The replacement of relationships with institutions has had far-reaching consequences in the ways we educate, work, and congregate in the modern world. As one seminary professor of pastoral theology told his young pastors-in-training, “If you want a friend, get a dog.” In a relationship-starved culture, pastors are not friends, but they know how to speak to crowds. Counselors are professional and they get paid by the hour. And educators are mere academicians and they avoid relationships, discipleship, and character training at all costs. But Jesus broke the paradigm when he called the disciples his “friends.” Then they abandoned him in his trial. So He went and died for such unfriendly treachery and sin. That is friendship.

Unfortunately, most charity in the modern world is distributed without relationship and the end results are devastating. Billions of dollars are transferred to the poor through complex bureaucratic channels in both private and public means of disposal. There is little accountability between the giver and the receiver, and much of it is redistributed wealth in the Marxist model. In contrast, Biblical charity is almost always distributed by personal involvement including “visiting” the orphan (James 1:27) and direct hospitality for the widow and orphan (Deuteronomy 16:11).

We have come to live in a world largely void of relationship because our institutions and our educational institutions in particular have trained us to live that way. Plainly, this life we live has been structured around the worldview of men like Rousseau who didn’t agree with Jesus. A world of institutions without relationship is a world designed to function without love, and that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, who sacrificed his life for us, so that we might sacrifice our lives for others. As we begin to rediscover a Biblical worldview, this will drive a realignment of our life view: the way we live, the way we love, and the way we relate to others.

There is no better place to begin working on the restoration of relationships than in the family, and there is no better time to start than when children are young. While homeschooling may not be the only way to restore relationships to education and life in the modern age, it is one giant step in that direction. I know of no other social change happening anywhere in the world that promises to undo Rousseau’s model and renew relationships. But be forewarned. Relationships can be frightening. As I leave the institutional world of engineered distances behind, I find relationship to be challenging, warm, unpredictable, wonderfully rewarding, always changing, humbling, risky, demanding, sanctifying, and requiring much faith and wisdom. In my life, I have built many things – mechanical, electrical, institutional, and political. But as I build relationships, I think I’m beginning to understand what is of essence in life. I am beginning to understand who I am in relation to the One who made me. I know a little more about what God meant when he said, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”


Copyright Kevin Swanson. 720-842-4852 www.chec.org www.kevinswanson.com

6-With Zest in Life

Chapter 6 | Together

One day, Little White Bear said to Blue Bear “Hey Blue Bear, let’s go fishing in the stream. Once we’re done, we can go through the meadow to pick wildflowers. They will add zest to our lives. Do you want to come?”

“Absolutely, why would I not?” asked Blue Bear in return.

So they set off for the stream. When they arrived, LWBB found that since it was a warm day, the clear water felt cool and wonderful.

“This is perfect!” exclaimed Blue Bear. After a moment he added “look, I already caught a fish!”

The two bears fished and talked, and spent most of the afternoon on the banks of the stream. Sometimes one would spot a rock that he wanted to add to his collection, a rock of a special color, shape, or kind. And after awhile, once they had caught enough fish and gathered enough rocks, LWBB decided to head back, for the sun was sinking low on the horizon.

The bears remembered that they wanted to stop by the meadow to pick wildflowers. As they were plucking the stems off the plants, LWBB looked up and saw the purple and pink clouds, and the orange of the sun slowly disappearing behind the mountains. They heard the crickets chirping, and the grass swaying softly in the breeze; and feeling only their hearts beating at the majestic beauty of Yahweh’s creation, they thought “this is what we like to do…together.”