Escalator

The escalator is going down.

When I was a kid I thought it was fun to try to go up the down escalator.   I’d wait for the moment that the escalator was empty and pounce! My legs would churn, my siblings would laugh, my mother would cringe.  And yell.   It takes double the effort to ascend a descending escalator.   If you pause for a moment, you’re moving the wrong direction.

Life is the down escalator.  Cultural drift, inertia, media, the evil in your own heart – all are pulling you the wrong direction.  You cannot stand still. If you relax for a moment, you’re losing ground.   It takes double the effort to ascend.

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Tim 3:12-13).

I might have convinced you that this figurative escalator is real.  I don’t know if I can convince you to join me in trying to climb it.  Why the effort?  Why look so silly?  Why go against cultural drift, against our very nature? 

Toward the end of the first chapter of John, Jesus finds Philip and offers him an invitation “Follow Me”.  That same invitation is open to you.  It’s so worth it – come and see.