Kokoda

I like to think of myself as being a bit of an outdoor type, but jungles don’t do much for me! All the plants with big prickles and trees that sting you if you brush against them. And all the strange insects that you’ve never seen before, and then there’s leeches! It’s always damp and your shoes get wet and you end up walking most of the way accompanied by a squelching sound.
You might come across a beautiful waterfall, but you can’t always be sure that it’s safe to drink—it could give you a nasty stomach bug. And if a mosquito bites you, you could end up with fever, chills, headache, sweats, fatigue, nausea and vomiting (according to webmd.com!). I’m not a pessimistic hypochondriac, really, but I think I’d rather watch a nature documentary on the telly.

I guess if you had to be out there for a week or more your feet would start to get a bit pruney and stinky, and sore if you had to keep walking. It would probably rain, ‘cause that’s what it does in jungles, and your clothes and everything would get saturated and muddy. And if you were carrying all your own food it might start to run out.

Even then I suppose I could be thankful I wasn’t fighting in a war, and that the enemy wasn’t hunting me down, hiding behind every tree. I wouldn’t have to fear every snapping twig, or getting cut off from the others. And I wouldn’t have to see my friend being killed in front of me.

Even if I did have this to be thankful for, I wouldn’t be in much of a mood to help anyone else. Tired, cold, wet, hungry, sore feet—I think I’d be pretty grumpy, to say the least. It’s challenging to think that people could endure all this and worse and still think of others before themselves. And not only to think of others in some small way, but to save another’s life at the cost of your own.

It’s funny how living a comfortable life makes it harder for me to go out of my way to help anyone else. Maybe it’s because I never actually come across anyone who really needs my help. Maybe it’s that I get a bit self-absorbed and don’t bother noticing that the people around me all need help of some kind or other.

It almost seems that those already suffering themselves are more willing to sacrifice for others. I’m not sure why that is, but I do know that when everything’s going well I can get a bit cocky! When that happens I don’t want to be dragged down by other people’s problems. I hear the preacher say there’s “no greater love than to lay down your life for another,” but I don’t even want to wash the dishes for my mum!

This might be a slightly odd conclusion to draw from a movie about Australians fighting in the Second World War, but I guess I’m only comparing my life to the story of these other people.

On a memorial built on the Kokoda Track are the words courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice. It sounds a bit like Paul when he says that suffering produces perseverance and in turn character and onwards to hope.
Paul goes on to talk about how it’s pretty unusual for anyone to be willing to die for someone else, even for a good person. But God proves His love for you and me by sacrificing Himself for us who were His enemies!

Check out Romans 5.