Burn the Ships

There are things that I love and there are things that I hate.

I loathe spiders.

So, a while back I stumbled across a TV segment where ordinary people were busy cooking a meal. I watched with warped fascination, as the main ingredient happened to be dozens of large black tarantulas.

In Cambodia, these spiders are a delicacy, especially females that are heavy with eggs in their abdomens. The spiders are simply washed before they’re thrown into a pot of hot oil and deep-fried with spices.

Uncooked. Cooked. They looked revolting. Promisingly crispy but revolting. Just imagining the sensation of their hairy legs on my tongue made me want to chunder.

Would eight legged snacks ever take off here in Australia?

“Hey Mum. What’s for dinner?”

“Roast lamb with a side of funnel-web spiders.”

Son nods with approval, “Noice!”

I’m a realist, so that scenario would only ever play out in an alternate parallel universe.

Did I mention that I hate spiders?

If you’re out in the yard pulling up weeds and think that a pair of gloves is sufficient protection, think again. The funnel-web spider has backward facing fangs that can penetrate through both gloves and fingernails.

Once bitten, ring 000 then apply a pressure bandage to the entire limb and keep it immobilised.

And race to a hospital quick smart, because the venom circulating in your bloodstream can end you. . .

           in just . . .

                   fifteen minutes. 

As the Bruce Lee of spiders, they make swift and sudden lunges when striking. And don’t get them angry as they’ll rear up on their back legs.

Water is no deterrent. So have a good look before you take a plunge into a swimming pool. Funnel-web spiders can survive up to 24 to 30 hours under water.

As for amusement park rides—I’m always the first one with my hand up to take action photos while I safely look on from the side lines.

I hate rides.

So taking a water ride named and designed after the notorious Funnel-Web spider had as much appeal as pushing honey up a sandy hill.

However, on an end of year school excursion, three teenage girls persuaded me (forcibly coerced?) into jumping on the Funnel-Web ride with them. One of the girls was my own flesh and blood. I felt so betrayed.

Though, if I hadn’t agreed to it, they would’ve hovered around me all day like flies to a carcass. I had to shake them off and shake off my fear.

Mind you, I screamed all the way—and that was just while we were standing around in a mile long queue just to get on the water ride.

My bare feet sizzled on the pavement, and by the time we reached the head of the queue, mine were well-done steaks. I said a desperate cry for help to the Lord as I sloshed my feet in the water, and planted myself on the raft.

Blood curdling screams from the people on the raft that launched before ours, echoed up through the tunnel’s mouth.

The girls’ wide grins offered neither reassurance nor peace. Was it just their wicked plan to take revenge on me? Perhaps to torture me for being hard on them all year? I was on this raft with three sadistic teens. My fingers curled around the handgrips tighter until they were numb.

Focus Shirl.

Dignity Shirl. Maintain your dignity. Don’t lose control. Don’t lose bladder control. Though if something were to leak out from sheer terror, with all this water, no would ever know. Just Jesus.

And keep your mouth shut. Don’t swallow the water. Don’t let not so nice words accidently slip out—and perhaps ruin your Christian testimony. Don’t die.

Once the ride attendant pushed our raft down into the mouth of the tunnel, there was no turning back.

We were speeding down on an incline, and even if I jumped off, I’d have had to have Spiderman’s abilities of crawling upside down on the ceiling to avoid the rafts surging after ours.

There really was no turning back.

In any military campaign, there’s no sympathy for soldiers who turn back, who go AWOL, or who shrink from a fight.

Sun Tzu in the Art of War said, “When your enemy has crossed the border, you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.”

Throughout history, many leaders have adopted this tactic of burning their ships, from Julius Caesar, to Alexander the Great, and Hernán Cortés. Completely removing the option of escape or retreat strengthened their commitment to prevail, to fight for victory.

They kept pushing forward until they successfully completed their missions.

What does Christ expect from us, his followers? Nothing less than 100% commitment.

And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.   Luke 9:59-62.

Jesus was weeding out the half-hearted disciples by explaining the cost of following him.

The hesitant would make up excuses for not following Jesus immediately, just like the man who asked to bury his father. For the Jews during that time, it was common practice for a burial to take place shortly after a person’s death.

A year after this first burial, once the flesh had sufficiently decomposed, the eldest son would return to claim the bones. He would rebury them by placing them securely in a box in a designated slot in the tomb wall.

The son, in speaking to Jesus could have been asking for as much as a year’s delay, according to Keener (1993:215).

The spiritually dead and inert make up excuses, but those who are truly born-again follow him all the way.

We cannot say that we are his disciples if we keep looking back and desiring the worldly life we left behind. We’d be acting like a woman in a brand new relationship with a young man, but keeps calling, texting, and hanging out with her ex.

We like what’s familiar and comfortable. If we allow even the smallest crack in the doorway to revert back to our previous habits or lifestyle we will.

It’s only human nature to take the easy way—the path of least resistance.

A half-hearted disciple is useless and unfocused. A man working a plough who keeps looking back will make a mess by creating crooked furrows or lines in the soil.

We need to burn the ships.

John Macarthur put it so eloquently in his book entitled, Only Jesus—What it means to be Saved. (2008:160)

It means taking up the cross daily, giving all for Christ each day. It means no reservations, no uncertainty, no hesitation. It means nothing is knowingly held back, nothing purposely shielded from His lordship, nothing stubbornly kept from His control.

It calls for a painful severing of ties with the world, a sealing of escape hatches, a ridding oneself of any kind of security to fall back on in case of failure.

Genuine believers know that they are going ahead with Christ until death. Having put their hand to the plow, they will not look back.

Bibliography

Author unspecified. 2020 (updated 3 Dec 2020), ‘Funnel-web Spiders’, Australian Museum. Retrieved 3 January 2020 from

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/funnel-web-spiders-group/

Author unspecified. 2013, ‘Burn the boats’, Blenheim Partners. Retrieved 3 January 2020 from

Click to access Burn-the-Boats.pdf

Keener, C. 1993, The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament, InterVarsity Press, USA.

Macarthur, J. 2008, Only Jesus—What it means to be Saved, Thomas Nelson, Nashville.

Verhagen, S. 2017 (updated 13 Feb 2017), ‘World’s deadliest spider: the funnel-web’, Australian Geographic. Retrieved 3 January 2020 from

World’s deadliest spider: the funnel-web

Photo credit: Pixabay–Youssef Jheir