Burning the ships

“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13)

Asclepiodotus, Robert Fitz-Stephen, and Raveneau de Lussan.  Ever heard of any of these men?  Probably not.  Their names are all sandwiched somewhere in the lost pages of history books.  Julius Asclepiodotus led his fleet of ships to Britain to confront Allectus, an officer in the Roman navy.  Robert Fitz-Stephen invaded Ireland with a fleet of ships.  And Raveneau de Lussan, a French buccaneer led a fleet of ships to capture Grenada.  These are men we’re not familiar with, however all three of these men have something in common that can teach us a lesson about life.  When each of these men arrived at their destination, ready to invade a nation, they first burned their ships.  They wanted to be certain that there would be no opportunity to retreat or turn back.  Their only option would be to go forward and fight.

That is precisely the attitude every follower of Jesus Christ must have.  When God commanded the Israelites to go forward through the Red Sea, they had no other option but to advance.  They had mountains surrounding them and Pharaoh’s Egyptian army breathing down their necks.  Had they tried to retreat and go back, they would have faced certain death.  In the same way, the reason David defeated Goliath was because he ran toward the massive man, not retreated away from him.    

You and I are on a journey with Jesus Christ.  And if we can’t let go of the past, our journey into the future with the Lord will be hindered.  That may well be the reason we stumble spiritually.  Our pasts are filled with pain, disappointments, failures, and regrets.  We all have had experiences of being betrayed.  Our life paths are strewn with some sort of suffering.  We all have times and seasons we wish we could erase from our own histories.  Things we wish we could change.  Losses we wish we could get back.  But if we keep looking over our shoulder at what happened to us, what someone did to us, what others said to us, the embarrassing things we ourselves did or said; sooner or later we are going to trip and fall over what is in the past.  There is only one way to go forward.  We must burn the ships.  There comes a point in our relationship with Christ when he will ask us to let go of our past and stop living in it.  To burn our ships so that we cannot go back.  To make certain our only option is to go forward.

If we are going to live our life as if the only hope we have is what lies ahead with Jesus Christ, then we need to burn our personal ships that keep wanting to sail us back to our past.  Why not ask Christ to help you burn yours today.

                                                             Darlene