Burn The Fleet

The old flag will burn with the sail
And a new one won't fly if we fail
But the fire continues to rise
And it shows not a hint of any fear in our eyes


Burn the fleet, we can never go home
It's on to victory or under ground
Burn the fleet, we'll be heroes or ghosts
But we won't be turned around


The lyrics above are from one of my favorite songs...Burn the Fleet by Thrice.  Sadly, I had no clue about the historical basis of the lyrics until this past Sunday.  It's a bit of a crazy story...


So here's the deal.  Hernando Cortez wanted to conquer the Aztec capitol, but the loyalty of his men in the face of danger was questionable.  So he burned his ships...destroying the possibility of retreat or escape.  


So at church we had the chance to hear from John & Eli Tiller.  I didn't know anything about the Tiller family, but please check out their story HERE.  The main point of John's talk was that we need to destroy the connections that tie us to a life without God.  Only be doing that can we find hope in him and him alone.  


Easy to say...so insanely hard to do sometimes.  But why?


I'm not sure about most people, but I think I struggle with this mostly because I don't believe that God's plan is more important than mine.  That's hard to write because I really do believe that God has this beautiful and amazing plan for us as individuals, families and nations.  But I can admit that I don't really want my family or friends (or me individually) to suffer in any way to further that plan...where's the good in that (for me!!)?  


So instead of trusting God fully and completely, we build safety nets and false security under the premise that we can step up when God decides to fail us (in our estimation).  And when difficulty or tragedy strikes, we care much more about using everything at our disposal to get out of that situation than we do about looking for what God may be doing through it or just growing in faith through it all.


If our plan (or script as John Tiller put it) is the most important thing to us, then we'll continue to live in this way.  If tragedy strikes, we'll find ways of convincing ourselves that this cannot be what God wants for us...as if our comfort, or even our life, is the most important thing to him.  However, if we can embrace the idea that God is sovereign and his ways and plans (even those that crush us) are good, then we can be shaped by that plan.


So if you can accept that God is good and his plans are perfect, then burn the ships.