On Escalators And Getting Stuck
Some years ago, while in
London, my sister and I met up with some friends for dinner. We had a good
time, and headed home at about midnight. I got down from the escalator at the
train station and turned around to see my sister stuck. Her brand new dress was
getting sucked into the metal animal and there was nothing she could do about
it. My instinct kicked and I rushed for the emergency stop button. Now, this
was around midnight and the station was quite empty, there was no official in
sight. The train was a few minutes away and we did not want to miss this one,
as it was late and the next one would be even later. And so we pulled and
pulled at her dress but it was stuck right there, a few other passengers came
and tried to help pull it out, but it was a no gainer… the alternative was to
rip the stuck part of the dress off. Someone had a knife and my sister gave a
little “my new dress’ sob. We eventually didn’t have to use the knife, some guy
had more strength than the others and gave it a big pull, the dress came out
all tangled and ripped and stained with grease… just in time for us to catch
the train.
Sometimes, we get on
escalators in life dressed in our favorite things and activities, but these
things hold us back, there’s a train waiting to take us to our destination, the
comfort of home… which is our purpose, but we’re cut between letting go of what
we have, the superficiality of it all and finding rest in purpose, … If I
didn’t hit that stop button she sure would have stood there pulling and pulling
while the evil thing just sucked up her dress till it stripped her… but the
little it held on to was difficult to let go of.
“You can’t move
forward if you are constantly looking behind you. Now is the time to leave the
past behind and make room to embrace the destiny that lies ahead for you” Victoria Osteen
Is there no way we can go
with the whole thing? Every inch of it, no tear, no wear? What’s holding you
back from the train waiting to take you to your purpose? Being in the popular
corner and the world’s idea of what being it
is? I was stuck on lives escalator once myself… it was hard giving up some
things. Giving up climbing up that social ladder, giving up living the IT life
and air kissing the world about… giving up hanging out with the cool group and
being a little too cold for comfort myself. But sometimes you have to know that
the things which satisfy your flesh are temporal and only holding you back from
the ultimate satisfaction of spirit, soul and body, and as much as its hard, we
need to be able to let go and just rip away from that binding force holding us
back, so we’re free to get on the train when it comes calling.
"Milton was right…" The choice of every lost
soul can be expressed in the words "Better to reign in Hell than to serve
in Heaven." There is always something they insist on keeping even at the
price of misery… C.S Lewis
As the C.S Lewis quote says,
are you insisting on saving/keeping the new dress /social circle/popularity/relationship
even at the price of misery? Let go, don’t let the escalator strip you of all
you’ve got before you realize you were better off just ripping off a piece of
you and running off, than letting it get the whole of you.
‘Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods.
Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that
goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself,
wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates
you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way
out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.’ 1John 2:15-17(MSG)
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