The Resilient Spider
6/2/13
As the world continues its course in separating itself further from God, recognizing yourself as a Christian is taking on a new meaning and it is slowly becoming more difficult to acclaim in the public eye this status. As times continue to advance the concepts of Christianity and living in this relationship with God will become harder to adhere to. Right now it is still possible to publically proclaim this faith and relationship but with the repeated and growing anger towards Christians a question remains to be answered and that is the question of how is your resiliency holding up with the pungent attacks?
Our house has two bathrooms in it, one that is located up on the third floor and the other located on the bottom floor. The bathroom upstairs is considered to be the main bathroom and it contains all of my girls’ makeup, hairspray, brushes, etc. The downstairs bathroom is considered to be “mine” but with one guy living with three other women, I know exactly what is mine, which means they can invade that area at any time they wish and then I am expected to vacate the premises quietly and in an orderly manner and then no one will get hurt.
The downstairs bathroom is much smaller than the upstairs one. This bathroom only has a shower, sink and toilet present within its location. The cat’s litter box is also located here underneath an unwanted end table which serves as his door. This bathroom is right next to my office and I am allowed to use this room for quick periods of time before I am expected to leave. But on this occasion which takes place over a period of two days is quite remarkable for during this time my girls did not have an opportunity to use this bathroom since they were staying over at my parents house with my other daughter who is visiting from Arkansas.
On the first day of this example I was in the bathroom for a few moments and when I was done I went over to the sink to wash my hands. As I approached the sink I noticed that there was a fairly decent sized spider that was doing his best to climb out of the bowl of the sink. Now if anyone has watched a spider try ad climb out of a smoothed and curved surface they would know that it is almost impossible for a spider to complete this task, which places the spider into the mercies of the human that is present. Many of us would naturally kill the spider immediately and not think anything about the process but others would not consider this option so quickly and try and seek out other options before capital punishment is considered.
After I had noticed the spider it was obvious that he knew of my presence because he did not move one millimeter more while I surveyed his possible path. At this time I did not know if he had fallen into the bowl from the side of the sink or if he had crawled out from the pipes and then tried to make his way up out of the bowl. Whatever the case at this moment I stood there over him and looking at him for a bit. I was noticing his markings and ascertained that as far as I could tell he was not considered to be one that was very threatening to humanity. But his body did have a few different colors of brown and black which made him more the interesting to observe. As I was checking him out I was thinking that I had not witnessed a spider of his color pattern before inside the house, which got my mind working to try and find a solution to his presence within the bowl.
I now had a decision to make concerning the life of this creature. For the most part my youngest daughter, who happens to b the tallest of all my daughters, is totally terrified of spiders. This bit of information about her is kind of funny since she has full reign of the alpha female act within the clan of sisters. Anyway, I knew that if my youngest daughter was to come into the bathroom and see this tiny creature she would go nuts and want me to kill it; and it did not matter how I accomplished this feat either. So my decision was either to kill the animal now or allow it to complete its journey in another manner, in which I chose.
It has been known that spiders are good swimmers and can survive many different types of currents and being the wise human I am I chose this action for this spider. I gently turned on the water and placed my hand in the stream of water and changed the current towards the spider. At this point the spider still had not moved at all, until the water came into his direction and then when the water ran down the bowl it swept the spider away from his spot and then down the drain. After the spider had left my sight, I continued to run the water down the sink for a few more moments to make sure that the spider would not reappear.
After this short period of time I then turned off the water but not moving from my position. I bent down and caught a glimpse of the area beneath the drain just to make sure that the spider was not hanging on to the rim of the drain. I continued to stand there for a few more moments to see if the spider would re-emerge out f the drain but no activity was visible. With the no show of the spider I had believed that I had convinced him that he was not welcome in my sink any longer and that he should find another entrance into the comfortable living space that he wanted.
I had been in the bathroom a couple more times that day and I took notice to see if any evidence of a spider was present and to my surprise and relief there was none. I also washed my hands during those visits and when I did not use the bathroom per say I did make a few quick stops in there just to make sure that the spider had given up. No matter what the occasion was during my time in the bathroom, I ran water down the sink to reinforce the idea of his continued disappearance.
My pattern of randomly walking into the bathroom and checking to see if the spider was around continued throughout the day and when evening time approached my established patterns did not change. I wanted to make sure that no evidence of a spider was present since the girls were going to spend the evening at home and would be using the bathroom sometime during the evening. As time marched on and usage of the bathroom by the girls was in order, I heard no blood curdling screams coming from the bathroom nor did I hear any cries for help to come remove a spider. I now believed that the spider was gone for good and that no other problems would arise concerning the matter.
The next day came with all of its glory and the normal routines of my wife and I continued without any alterations. It was a nice day and we had decided to go to the mountains and let my daughter from Arkansas see the mountains again. It had been since she was a little girl that she had beheld high mountains and not the hills of Arkansas that she currently abides within. So all of the clan was packed up and we were in the mountains for the entire day. It was a wonderful trip and everyone enjoyed themselves while cooling off from the warm weather as well. The scenery was beautiful and the reservoirs were looking better than they had for a couple of years.
We returned home and of course everyone had to visit the bathroom. I did not think twice about the spider the entire day and really was not concerned of his return. My confidence was blown when I went into the bathroom and looked into the sink bowl not expecting to find any visitors but when my eyes gazed upon the same spider in the exact same place as the day before my confidence was crushed and to be honest I was not only surprised but a bit angry as well, for the spider had beaten me and was resilient enough to come back and try again to get to his destination. So I performed the exact same procedures as the day before where the water was concerned but this time the force of the water was greater and the amount of time that I ran the water after he had disappeared down the drain was even longer.
After I had turned off the water and gloating within myself, God decided to take over the moment and show me a lesson about life. Not only for the Christian but for the person that does not know Christ as well. It is important for everyone to understand this concept but it is vital for the Christian for it is the means by which we should demonstrate how the forces of the Spirit are against us and this example also provides a response in which we should recover.
We all recognize that we are trying to reach a certain goal in life. As the spider the human has a route that they take in order to accomplish this goal. And at some point along the way a decision that we make changes the course that we are on. These decisions can be good ones and they can be not so good ones, and whatever choice we make obstacles will come into play at some point.
In the example of the spider the water was the obstacle that the spider had to face. And upon reading the end result it is clear that the water forced the spider backwards and eventually placed him back down into the drain to start again. Did it force him all the way back to his beginning? I do not know that answer but I do know that he was not in the advanced place after I had directed the water towards him. Spiders also need water to survive but that much water concentrated in a specific direction spells trouble for that spider and he is forced to accept the new current that has been given him.
The water as stated above is the problem for the spider but if one looks at this example in all reality the water should have not bothered the spider’s path. The spider was already far enough away from where the path of the water was coming out of the faucet that it should not have been any threat to him. Yes, it would have gotten his attention but unless some other contributing factor or force was present all should have been well for the spider. The water also can represent life and all of the ups and downs that it brings to our realms.
So, it was my hand that changed the course of the spider and it was my actions that caused him to fall in a backwards motion. This is an interesting concept and I hope you are following in the direction that I am heading for this scene does play out within our lives each day and what comes towards us by way of life and troubles, it is our response that will make all of the difference both in our lives and in the lives of our families.
The spider had its own course that he was taking and to be honest was doing quite well until I saw him and believed that I had to do something to alter his path to make things easier or better for my situation. This is the interesting part of this story that relates to our lives. Imagine that the spider and his path represent our lives and we are doing so well along our path until we see something that frightens us. We stop and then hope that the object that has frightened us has not noticed us yet; however, deep down inside we know that it has and it is only a matter of time before it strikes its might against us.
As we sit there and anticipate what its next move will be we begin to encounter an event that seems small and one that should not cause us too much grief. But then something else occurs, an event that hits us square in the face, a personal attack that comes from an unexpected source which causes us to doubt our existence and the path that we have chosen. This event forces us to take steps backwards and to regroup after the event has passed and we quickly realize that the choices that we had made had hurtful consequences that produced scars on our hearts.
We regroup and begin to start the process again but soon another personal attack occurs and this one seems similar in nature but its results are far greater than the previous. The scars are now deep and ugly and remind us on a constant basis of the actions and the results that we have accrued. Our anger now also runs deep and our trust in others has been destroyed along with our security from our up close environment have fled our lives as if running from a hurricane. From the immediate vantage point our own personal self is the only one that we can rely upon to b there for us after the dust settles. And it is at this point that our enemy in life has won the victory over us because we fail to see that the situation that hit us head on was actually directed towards us by that same enemy.
It is by a supernatural mind that congers up these events and then by his supernatural hands delivers these events into our path. Then he loves to place the concept into our hearts that it is the One who has created us that actually provided the pain after the attack. We must recognize the tactics of our enemy and understand that things come along our path because God is a just God by allowing us to make our own choices. But it is our enemy who doles out the activities and events that come along our way and then it is our responsibility to stop and take a good look at our surroundings and then return to God and find out the correct path that we need within our lives.
There is no reason for us to be wary of the world. For the world and its spirit will rear its ugly head at you, no matter what your beliefs are concerning God. As Christians it is our job to let people know about these forces that are against us and to shed light on the worldly spirit so that it may be exposed to the truth, but we need to get out of the pews in order for this process to begin. However, if we continue to sit and do nothing then the world’s spirit will continue its course in each one of our lives and will eventually uproot our personal pews and throw us to the wind without recourse.
But on the other hand, as long as there is fight within our lives we will be a target of our enemy for he understands our potential to the world. We must be like that spider in that even though the water has hit us directly and has knocked us backwards a ways, it is not time to give up. Wait a while and God will then tell us the direction to travel, if we allow Him to have access to our path. It is a simple process to begin and it is called restoration. When we allow God to be the deciding factor in our lives then His resilience will give us the strength to dodge those attacks or to respond to them adequately when they hit. God is the only answer for our lives and when we choose Him we automatically push His Kingdom forward.
DLB
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