LADDERS

What ladder are you climbing?

Isn't it always something?  The "just got to get to the...."  I'm a good 2.5 months post graduation and 2.5 days post becoming a licensed pharmacist - And yet again, I find myself wondering what's next.  What's next? HELLO, Hart, you've been waiting on the no-study days for quite some time... Rest in the now for once.  I don't know about you, but I feel like the world is screaming at me to take another step on the ladder.  Another step?  I've been climbing SO long- isn't it OK to just get off now?  How far do I have to climb to feel like I've "arrived" and  what is this magic destination at which I'm hoping to reach?  Success? (What is that, anyway?) Dream job? The "happy" place? Contentment? Having "enough"? (and what is that?)  Aren't we all sick of this ladder? Its exhausting and unsteady. It's a dangerous ladder. With each undirected step, the ladder becomes less and less stable.  A step of selfishness here, a step of people pleasing there.  I step of pride here, a step of self-gratificaiton there.  All these steps up a shaky ladder and well, where is this ladder going anyway?  Does it even end?  Do I ever arrive?

So I've been debating.  Do you just decide to hop off the ladder?  Do you quit working so hard, quit trying to set yourself apart?  Do you quit working for the promotion or your dream job?  Do you decide to just be content?  Content... or complacent? Oh, there's complacency. Do I just decide to not take any risks? Stay in my comfort zone? My phrase as of late has been "After this residency, I'm hopping off the ladder, yall!" Is that what I should be thinking?  Complacent. That sounds not only boring, but also like a life that's not lived out in faith.  Not one bit.

So there must be another ladder, right?  I think there is...  I think there's a ladder leading to sanctification. This is a very, very tall ladder- but the only reason we know it's tall is because there IS a destination (or top, if you will).  There is somewhere to arrive, but it involves us taking steps every day.  These aren't easy steps to take, but they are much more stable- and even if this ladder feels shaky sometimes, you trust that there's someone holding it at the top.  You take every step with Faith- with your eyes fixed on CHRIST and NOT on yourself.   Take every step knowing you have someone guiding you up each inch if you simply ask. This ladder is one we must aim to climb our whole lives despite the false glow of the other. The only thing keeping us from taking just one step is to look back at ourselves.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus....
17Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Philippians 3. 


So what ladder are you climbing? The ladder of the world?  Or the freely accessible ladder towards Christ?  Or are you just stuck on the step of complacency?

Get climbing :)