Written by Nilaurys Garcia, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister in Chile
Some places have elevators and others have stairs or escalators. Climbing stairs can be difficult for children, elderly, or a person who has bodily ailments. Think for a second about the effort that you put forth to climb a staircase.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was talking with a friend, I mentioned to her that Christian life is like climbing a descending escalator (we have known each other for more than 15 years, so she let out a laugh; she knows that I like examples and expected me to elaborate on the idea). Some of you will not understand the image that I am proposing, but let me explain it to you. Climbing up escalators that are descending is a little complicated. There is a movement that takes us down no matter how much we try to go up, and no matter how great of a willpower we have, but if we keep trying and establish a constant rhythm of steps, we can keep going up and even get to the top after sweating a little bit. However, what happens if we get distracted or stumble? What is most likely is that the escalator will drag us down a couple steps, or if we really lose the rhythm, we may have to start back at square one.
Our spiritual life is similar to that idea of climbing an escalator which is going down. If we make an effort (if we study the word, pray, stay strong, have communion with the church), we can constantly go up and grow in our daily walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. It becomes easy to be a Christian when I feel full of the kindness and the love of God. It is much easier to wait patiently in city traffic when I remember that the joy of the Lord is my strength, and it’s easier to get up in the morning with a thankful heart because God has gifted me with a new day. But when we let other things distract us and make us lose focus, we take the wrong steps. We risk falling to the bottom of the escalator and having to start over…I forget the joy of the new day and I drift away from the One that gave himself over for me.
We have heard many times about these characteristics that Peter asks us to strive for: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:5-7 NIV). All of these characteristics will make us grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and will keep us from being useless and unproductive (v. 8). If we go back to the image of the escalator, we are constantly making an effort to add these things to our faith (climbing the escalator).
Even though this escalator may be an individual path, let us think of all of us climbing. Communion with the church is important. We are all encouraging each other to take the next step. No matter what your current status is, married, single, we are all on this path, we are encouraging others and receiving their support as we form part of this great body that has Jesus as our head.