I don’t like spider webs.  I know they are marvels of engineering.  I appreciate that they can be beautiful to behold.  I am aware of their place in the scheme of things.  But I don’t like them.  They give me the willies.  When I get tangled up in one I sometimes hurt myself trying to get untangled as fast as possible.  Of course I know the webs won’t hurt me.  But where there is a web, there is a spider.  Snakes don’t bother me, but spiders drive me wild.

    This was a real problem when we first moved up here in the country.  There were some trails, which we have added to, that we enjoyed walking.  They were so quiet and peaceful, with so much to see on every side.  But they were the perfect place for spiders to spin their webs.  It was impossible to go very far without running into a web spun from one side to the other.  I had to use a stick, which I waved around in front of me, to knock the webs down before I got there.

    I followed that pattern every day, sometimes twice a day, for a long time before I decided there had to be a better way.  As I thought about it, I realized I was fighting a losing battle.  I knocked the web down, but the spider just built another one before I came that way again.  I saw that the only real remedy for the spider webs was to kill the spiders.

    So I began methodically searching for the spider that made each web.  Often they were in plain sight.  Other times they were well hidden.  I studied them, and discovered where they hid.  And I searched them out and killed the ones I found.  When I did this, the webs didn’t come back.  Until new spiders moved in.  When they did, I went after them.

    This will be a continuing struggle, I know.  But I also know I have learned how to deal with spider webs.  Simply kill the spiders.

    The Christian life is like that.  There are some bothersome things (habits, attitudes, etc.) that we keep fighting against.  We don’t like them.  We wish we were free from them.  But the battle seems hopeless.  We are doomed to defeat until we quit struggling with the symptoms and deal with the sins that cause them.  We need to quit simply knocking down the webs, and start killing the spiders.

    As we finish an old year and begin a new one, this may be the perfect time to turn our attention to the causes instead of the effects, so that by God’s grace, through God’s Spirit, we may win the war.