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Chutes & Ladders

 


  Do you remember the old kids' board game Chutes & Ladders? For those unfamiliar, you spun the dial and advanced that many spaces trying to reach the top.  If you landed on a ladder, you take it skipping ahead, but if you got on a chute, then you slide back down.

  The journey of faith is a lot like that game. We plug along, growing toward the goal. Something happens that moves us ahead with ease. Then comes the chute, knocking us back down. At times it is easy, at times it is hard, at times it just moves along. The key is to keep getting back up and moving forward.

  There will be setbacks. There will be successes. Sometimes you move so fast you can’t believe how simple it is. Sometimes it seems all you do is fall down. Other times, it is slow progress but progress nonetheless.  You just need to keep spinning and keep taking your turns

  The promise isn’t ease. It isn’t consistency. It is that if we keep going, we will reach the prize.

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.  But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

Hebrews 3:12-14

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