Reflections on BURNING BRIDGES
Twitter: @Talktolia
“One bridge we must detest and burn for good and whose ashes we must throw into a river, is the bridge that constantly connects us to perdition.”
There’s always a tendency to burn bridges in our realistic, often desperate, and sometimes illusive attempts to move on from a less desirable point “A” to a more desired point “B” or infinity. However, we often forget that no one but the author of our lives can actually determine at any point in time what bridges we must burn and what bridges we should leave hanging across the rivers we once crossed in our transitions to a dream future.
Fair enough, no one desires to find themselves back into a lion’s den, a dungeon, a “hell on earth” to say the worst, yet no one has total control over a route that may very well be engineered to detour its course via a once detestable bridge if that’s the bridge that must provide the peace of mind we all long for. Life is so unfair at times and we really would have loved to just be in total control of the bridges we cross. We would have also loved to have the full choice to pick, cross and burn each bridge as we journey on.
Some bridges are fairly burnt, others are unfairly burnt. For those burnt bridges endorsed by our Maker, we have absolutely no reason to worry about them popping up again somewhere in our future because only God can close doors no man can open. And when God says NO, no one can say YES and vice versa.
BUT WHO IS THE BRIDGE AND WHO IS THE BRIDGE-BURNER?
One interesting clue to highlight in the human and spiritual processes of burning bridges is the fact that sometimes, the bridge-burners are not even aware of the fact that they are burning a bridge. They might be too full of themselves and often too sure of their traveling resources that they don’t even bother to recognize a bridge as a bridge.
Let’s look at some futile attempts to burn bridges without God’s permission. My favorite Genesis 37 hero Joseph is a good example. Because of his permanent divine favour stamped upon his destiny, his dreams were such a threat that his brothers did not only envy a simple coat of many colours his father Jacob gave him, but they also envied his dreams and thought his “naïve” rantings could be burnt, buried and forgotten. We all know that they were neither burnt nor forgotten forever. Jacob mourned his “dead” son for 13 years totally unaware that his son who once dreamt of becoming the ruler over his family was going to be the bridge to their rescue from 7 dreadful years of famine. Potiphar and his deceptive wife had no idea that Joseph would one day rule over them.
The Chief Cupbearer who forgot about Joseph as soon as he was restored to his service at the king’s courtyard, also recklessly burnt a bridge. (Genesis 40:23).
The greatest bridge that was unknown to its burner was Jesus Christ. If the Devil, knew that sending Jesus to the cross to get Him crucified was rather going to create a bridge for humanity to cross over to eternal life, I am very sure he would have bought a Limousine, stuffed it with massage therapists to pamper Jesus all the days of his life. But instead, he bought a cross for Jesus. Today, that cross is our free bridge to cross over.
All these scenarios simply tell us that not all people who today burn bridges know better. Not all people who have burnt bridges knew any better and not all people who will still burn bridges in future would know better.
HOW THEN DO WE GET TO KNOW BETTER?
As a matter of fact, we really can’t. We are often victims of circumstances based on our human understanding and appreciation of the circumstances. The easy way out is always the easiest option but might turn out to be the most regrettable alternative to leaving some bridges as they are. As long as we are not deliberately planning to destroy a bridge because we believe we can do better without such a bridge; as long as we are not intimidated by a bridge and decide to burn it because after all, why should that person be a bridge and not me?
But truth remains; we are all bridges to others and will require others to be bridges for us someday, somehow, because we never know what the future holds. If we knew better, we’d also be interfering with the nature of God’s activities; we would also sabotage many a testimony. However, no bridge can cross itself. We must all play the role to be a bridge at different points in time. One bridge we must detest and burn for good and whose ashes we must throw into a river, is the bridge that constantly connects us to perdition. The bridge we must all burn and never have cause to regret: the bridge to Hell.
God bless us all as we avoid rushing to burn bridges without seeking His guidance.
LIA
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Irine Lum Asanji (aka LIA) is a freelance writer and journalist based in Brampton, Canada. Born and raised in Cameroon the daughter and sister of Pastors, LIA immigrated to Canada in 2006. She holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism (University of Buea, Cameroon) and a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology (University of Tromso, Norway). She has worked as a journalist and Communication Officer with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). LIA recently designed and launched a website talktolia.com geared towards Marriage and Family enrichment services, which serves as her ministry and her private business. She is an employee with Broan-Nutone Canada and became born-again in 2011 making her more evangelistic in her approach to writing. She speaks English, French, German and Norwegian. She is a mother of two and enjoys singing, cooking, dancing and a good laugh. She writes under her name and her pen name LIA which also means Lord Is Able.
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