I think it’s reasonable to not like spiders. Just last week, my daughter had an itchy belly button and decided to look instead of just scratch. It was a spider settling in.

Whether you like spiders or not, everybody seems to have a spider story. Even Scotland has a spider story. Or maybe I should say that especially Scotland has a spider story. For those who have heard it, I think we can agree that it is more inspirational than my daughter’s recent adventure.

If you haven’t heard the legend of Robert the Bruce and the Spider, you really owe it to yourself to find a better storyteller than I. I first read it in an anthology series on the bookshelf at home, and I loved it immediately. There are a myriad of versions of it, and they are worth checking out. I hew toward Sir Walter Scott’s version, but I am a bit biased. However, if you can’t be bothered to look it up yourself, here’s the gist of it:

Robert the Bruce had been crowned King of Scotland in 1306, and he wasn’t doing well. Defeated at every turn and often in the most embarrassing of ways, he was forced to flee into the wilds of Scotland. His family was imprisoned or executed, his army scattered, and he was on the brink of despair. Lying in his bed he was considering fleeing the country when he noticed a spider trying to connect its web across a large gap above his head. Time and again the spider failed to close the gap with its strand of web. Six times it fell short. It dawned on the Bruce that he had been defeated 6 times since being crowned king. “If this spider tries again and succeeds, I’ll get out of this bed and try again,” he said to himself.

The spider tried once more. The gap was closed, and Robert the Bruce went on to win Scottish independence.

I love that story. I may not be leading a revolt for national independence, but I think in my own small way I can relate to feeling a weight so heavy I would rather stare at the bugs on the wall than drag myself out of bed. I can also relate to considering leaving the country in hopes that it will solve my problems. I can relate to wondering if the rut I’m stuck in will ever be escapable.

But then there is that spider. It makes us uncomfortable. It pushes us out of our bed and back onto our feet. I prefer the method used by the Bruce’s spider to the one used by my daughter’s spider, but both were apparently quite effective. And out of our bed we are invariably a step closer to our goals, the goals worth striving for, a victory worth fighting for.

“Do not rejoice over me, my enemy,” writes the Hebrew prophet Micah, “When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness The Lord will be a light to me.”