What bees can teach us: Self care is different from caring about yourself

St. John Chrysostom once said in his 12th homily, “The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.” It is a simple idea, one that we were taught while in kindergarten - the value of serving others. 

While the beehive is not a common image used in relation to the Church, it does make it's appearance in the Latter Day Saints community as well as a connection to St Ambrose, St Bartholomew, St Kharlamii, and St. Gobnait (aka Abigail) to name a few. Beekeeping and the monastic life have long been intertwined. 

I trust that you can discover many layers in the metaphor of bees and the Christian life but I wanted to highlight one specific aspect about bees and the Christian life. That is the work of self care. 

Sometimes we are prone to think that the bee is working to pollinate the other flowers that it comes across and this is what the bee is setting out to do. However, this is not what the bee is doing. The bee, as you know, is looking for nectar and it goes from flower to flower doing so. To put it another less poetic way, the bee is taking care of itself in a way that benefits the world around it. This reflective of what self care is within the Christian tradition. 

Christians are called to tend to our own souls but in a particular and specif way: our self care benefits those around us. Too often self care is thought of as something that one does in order to get away from people and the larger world. Ironically, self care cannot end with the self. Self care means we act in ways renew us while also pollinating the world. More inward forms of renewal is not self care, it is just caring about ourselves.

Why didn't God just destroy chaos

In the book of Job there is a section (chapter 41) where God is speaking to Job about a creature called Leviathan. Leviathan is the ancient creature of chaos that is often depicted as living in the sea. When God begins to talk about Leviathan to Job, it is in the context of God and Job having a conversation whereby God reminds Job that there are mysteries that are beyond his knowing. For instance, can Job draw out Leviathan with a fish hook? Can Job control Leviathan in ways that merchants will be willing to bargain for it or could Job make it docile enough to show the creature off to his girls? God spends the first eleven verses of chapter 41 talking about how it it not possible for Job to destroy chaos. 

As you read more of the chapter, it seems as though God's tone begins to change when talking about Leviathan. Not as something to be destroyed but as something that God is actually proud of! Like a parent bragging on their child, God begins to take notice of the beauty and power of this creature. How strong it is, how mighty it's frame. No one can overcome it. It's eyes flash forth light and there is an intensity in it's breath. When it raises itself up, even the gods are afraid. On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear! 

God does not destroy chaos because God has discovered that there is a beauty in chaos that cannot be overlooked or found anywhere else. So we must learn to live with chaos. The revelation to me however is not that we are to strike a balance between chaos and peace. The revelation to me is can I be like God and be in relationship with chaos that I can begin to brag on it's beauty? 

Sure I can live with chaos, we all have to. But can I delight with what chaos can be/do? 

A psychic, convict, billionaire fisherman that does not exist

Take three minutes to watch this commercial made by Canon.

“He stood on his soapbox and told us a parable
of a man with eye-glasses so small they’re unwearable.
And the moral of the story is that it all looks terrible,
depending on what you look through, what you look through.”

— The Grandson of Jesus - by Cloud Cult

Within this video you saw one man walk into the studio six different times to meet a different photographer each time. Each photographer was given a backstory of the man. One photographer was told the man was a former convict another was told he was a billionaire and another told he was a psychic. After each photographer heard a backstory of the man, they then took their photos. After developing the film each of the six pictures were hung on a string side by side. The photographers all came into the room and examined the different photographs. It was at this time that the photographers were told that the man was not any of the things they each heard in the backstory. 

That is when the video comes to it's point: a photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than what is in front of it. 

So taking this metaphor out a bit, it is important to be mindful that how you see is influenced by what you think. The world is broken in areas, however this does not mean the world is going to hell in a hand basket. We are more inclined to see what we want to see and we are more blind that we want to believe we are. 

What story are you telling about yourself? What stories are you telling about those you work with? Live with? Dislike? Admire? God?