sunday thoughts 5/2, expanded

A couple weeks ago, an anonymous commenter asked for more details regarding my Sunday notes about barriers to progress, so I'm here to elaborate.

Our teacher starting by referencing this YouTube video. It's a good image/metaphor for hitting ruts in our lives. Watch it, then proceed with reading this post. The man and woman "trapped" on the escalator just stand in place waiting for help when they could easily walk up themselves. If we hit a rut in life, we might be tempted to stand on our step and not move forward. The areas in which we sometime hit barriers that we discussed are (a) testimony, (b) financial, (c) cleanliness, (d) holding to the rod.

We discussed each of these as areas in our lives in which simple actions make a big difference. Also, everyone experiences periods when these things come easily, like when the escalator is smoothly and quickly moving forward. Sometimes, the stairs stop moving, but we can't. We have to make extra effort and take a few steps on our own.

The main message of this lesson is that when we hit ruts we can't stop working and doing. This brought to mind a couple powerful quotes:

President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"Work. Work. Work is the best antidote to anything that threatens to impede your progress."

C.S. Lewis
"Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. [ . . . ] He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles."

We have to take steps when our escalator stops moving automatically.