What My Bunny Taught Me

This coming Monday is July 4th, our Independence Day, a celebration of our American freedoms. The concept of freedom in Christ was revealed to me by a real life object lesson a few years ago.  It all started when my cousin gave us a bunny.

Bunny came complete with a decent sized wire cage, feeding dish and a water dripper.  Bunny was so soft and cute and would even let you hold him without scratching.  The weather was nice so I placed Bunny on the backyard patio to enjoy the fresh breezes.  From my patio, Bunny could see a fenced in backyard with a beautiful waterfall that spilled into a koi pond. 

Hostas, azaleas, and other foliage abounded.  But Bunny was locked in his cage, which greatly bothered me.  Bunnies were not meant to be held in cages.  They were meant to hop and frolic and twitch and nibble.  So I set Bunny free to live in my backyard.  He was so delighted and I was tickled to see how happy he was.  My kitchen window faced the backyard and I loved looking up from the dishes and seeing Bunny hop back and forth.  Bunny would hop up the waterfall to a favored perch for a sip of water.  He would nibble on my plants.  He would race from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason.  He would come up to me when I was in the back yard for a gentle pet and whatever treat I had brought him.  I provided Bunny a perfect world and gave him freedom from his cage.  It was a safe place within the boundaries of the 5 foot high, wooden privacy fence.  Bunny was happy.  I was happy.

Then, Bunny found a small opening under the fence-just enough room for Bunny to wiggle out.  Bunny discovered a whole new, bigger freedom outside my boundary.  Bunny was excited about this new world.  One day, I went to the backyard to enjoy my rabbit but I could not find him anywhere.  Soon, I realized what had happened.  Bunny had left the comfort and security of the freedom I had given him for a different kind of freedom--a freedom without boundaries.  But Bunny didn't comprehend that I could not protect him or provide for him or have a relationship with him outside of my boundaries.  He could be hit by a car or eaten by the neighbor's dog. The fence that once kept us close now separated us.

I set out to find and rescue Bunny.  I was successful and returned Bunny back to his backyard home, but he went straight to the area wherein he had escaped and left again.  Again I retrieved him and attempted to secure the hole under the fence, but now that Bunny knew there was a way out under the boundary, he would dig holes to get out.  What I had provided was no longer deemed to be what was best in his mind.  Finally, I caught Bunny one last time, but this time I had to put him back into his cage, which broke my heart.  I could not bear to see Bunny caged up.  I ended up giving Bunny to the neighbor boy. 

God gives me freedom and wants me to enjoy my freedom in Him.  But He has also set boundaries around this freedom.  These boundaries keep me safe and keep me in relationship with Him.  The "outside" world can look so inviting and glamorous--even logical, but to step outside of God's boundaries means I am moving farther away from Him and signifies my belief that God is holding back from me something I will enjoy.  I have dug out under the fence and crossed God's set boundaries for me--more times than I care to admit.  But after a short while I find myself unfulfilled, bound up, lonely, and longing for God's Presence. 

Galatians 5:1 says, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Through Bunny I learned a valuable lesson of my freedom within the boundaries that God has set.  When I convince myself that my way is better than His and leave the safe haven of my freedom within His boundaries, He-in His perfect grace-retrieves me (when I realize I was wrong) and puts me back where I belong, in relationship with Him.  When will my flesh truly accept that His ways are best?

This weekend, reflect on your freedom in Christ.  What does it mean to you?  Do you see the incredible freedoms you have to live, love and enjoy life? All that is required for true happiness is provided within the safe boundaries of a relationship with your Creator and Savior.

The last time I saw Bunny, he was in the neighbor's garage...in his cage.

Eternal Importance

Circumstances are not eternal, but your relationship with Christ is.  The only things you can take with you into your next life are loved ones who have accepted Christ.  Focus on what really matters.

Afraid of The Lord's Prayer??

Looking at familiar passages of Scripture in different translations is a great way to get a fresh perspective. The Message Bible seeks to take the original words of the Bible and translate them into our most modern jargon.  While my favorite translation is the NIV, I like to look to The Message for an interesting take and modern commentary on God's Word.

Today I read Matthew 6 from The Message Bible and therein is found "The Lord's Prayer".  This was Jesus' example of how our prayers should be simple and sincere before God.

 ^7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

   Our Father in heaven,
   Reveal who you are.
   Set the world right;
   Do what's best— as above, so below.
   Keep us alive with three square meals.
   Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
   Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
   You're in charge!
   You can do anything you want!
   You're ablaze in beauty!
      Yes. Yes. Yes.

Notice how it rephrases "Thine is the power" with "You can do anything you want!".

I decided to pray this prayer this morning and something strange happened to me when I got to that line, "You can do anything you want!"  I was surprised that I actually choked on those words and felt fear come up in me.  I was fine with the line before, You're in charge--that was comforting.  And the line after about His beauty, I totally agree.  But I hesitated on agreeing that God can do anything He wants because of the fear of what would that give God permission to do (as if He needs my permission).  This revealed to me that I don't quite have a true grasp of His love and perfect character.  I hope my heart and mind will come to the place of fully trusting that God wants me to have my best, most abundant life. 

Puppy Potty Training

After months of my then 9 year old begging, my husband and I conceded and decided to get her a puppy.  She wanted a dog so bad and we felt we were robbing her childhood of something potentially precious if we did not at least give it a try.  So we began to keep our eye out for a "good" one.  Then we saw this little guy and I must admit, I was smitten with his cuteness.  I mean, look at him......

I have heard it said that God purposely made baby animals cute so that we would be drawn to take care of them.  Well, it worked.  So I set out immediately to house break this little creature as quickly as possible.  I read up on the Internet for potty training strategies.  I posted a schedule and rules of the house to help our little guy, whom my daughter named Hershey, be successful in this venture.  From what I read on the Internet, this should take 2, 3 weeks tops.

Two or three weeks turned into two or three months and I started getting very frustrated. I am a very task oriented person, so the fact that I could not check "Housebreak Hershey" off my to do list made me feel like I failure.  What was I doing wrong?  Or perhaps there was something wrong with this particular dog that made him unable to understand what I wanted from him. Were we EVER going to have a housebroken dog?

About that time, my cousin who has experience with dogs, gave me a wonderful piece of advice.  He said, when you bring a puppy home, plan on the housebreaking to take about a year.  Doesn't seem like life changing words, but for me, it took the stress out of the situation and reset my mental state.  I no longer felt like a failure.  I changed my to do list entry from "Housebreak Hershey" to "Have Hershey housebroken within a year".  It was such a relief because I knew this unpleasant situation was going to come to an end at some point.  There was nothing "wrong" with me or Hershey. We will get through this and have a potty trained dog.

That simple statement, "plan on it taking a year", changed my perspective of what I assumed was my failure.  Jesus also told us to "plan on" something.  He told us to plan on His return.  Like my cousin, He even gave us a time frame--He said He would return "quickly".  I have wondered how could He say He would return "quickly" when its been thousands of years since He said that.  The reason is this; once He does return, all of our time on earth will seem like but a vapor in comparison to eternity.

2 Corinthians 2:17 says this, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Do you know why women agree to get pregnant even though there will be much pain and discomfort?  Because they know they will only be miserable for no more than nine months and then it will be over.  Could you imagine if when you got pregnant you had no idea when, if ever, the baby will be ready to be born.  I don't think I could mentally handle that.  Knowing that the hard times will come to an end within a certain time frame helps us handle most anything. 

So Jesus told us to plan on His return and that He would come back quickly.  We can handle this life.  We can put our pain, discomfort, and perceived failures in the perspective of our eternity with Him.  Plan on Him coming back quickly.

It has been just over a year now since Hershey came into our home and I am happy to announce he is 99% housebroken and a wonderful addition to our family.

One Sign of "REAL" Spiritual Growth

 

You want to live right before others, not because of what others will think of you, but because of what others will think of the God you claim to serve.