Fighting the Easy Solution

Well, out of my continued writer's block, I am going to revisit some of my past blogs (since I was unable to write as much as I wanted for some of them). The one I am going to revisit today is only from last week - this past blog contained a YouTube video showing a humorous commercial. In the commercial, the escalator stops, and the people riding the escalator respond as though they are trapped on an elevator - or on top of some roller coaster that has stopped. They begin to panic and are frozen on each of their steps yelling for help and trying to figure out if either of them has a phone in order to call for help. The man in the video tries to remain calm, and he reassures the woman stuck with him on the escalator that someone will surely come soon to help. Of course, you must remember, that even with a stuck elevator or roller coaster, you can usually escape somehow -- if you can get the elevator doors open, you're free to take the stairs, and if you get stuck on top of a roller coaster, they usually have some stairs as a last resort.

Of course, a non-functioning escalator has an even SIMPLER solution for escape. All you need to do is WALK, because they ARE stairs! If stairs are a manual form of escape, I think it would be better to be 'stuck' on an escalator rather than a non-functioning elevator or roller coaster. I'm sure a lot of you have walked up an unmoving escalator at sometime in your life, or even walked up or down a moving escalator in order to get to where you are going quicker. (And I'm positive that a number of you have also tried going up an escalator in the opposite direction that you were supposed to…)

I think we all get to points in our life where our course of actions could be simple (like walking up an unmoving escalator), but we choose not to help ourselves. Instead, we choose to wallow in our self-pity and hope that someone will come along to pity us with their attention or to pull us up out of the pit. Sometimes we just want an audience for our pity and sometimes we want someone to push or pull us out of it.

Don't you think that some of these pity parties for ourselves are pretty pathetic? (were there enough 'p' words in that question for you?) The solution to our problem is sometimes simple enough, but instead of moving forward, we hold ourselves back and limit ourselves. We take the "easy" road of doing nothing, which truly turns out to be the "difficult" road since it only hinders us and pushes off the solution for as long as possible…so pretty much, we're just procrastinating the inevitable, or trying to make someone else take care of the solution for us while working around us.

Are you at a spot in your life right now where you know how to better your situation, but you are refusing to take that step to get off of the malfunctioning escalator? Or is there someone you know that is in that situation right now - and maybe you need to help them to get off that unmoving escalator? Maybe you need to show them how to take that step to get off the escalator, or maybe even just sit there with them until they are ready to take that step off the escalator.

Sometimes, we do need help to get through the solution, and that is when we need to turn to God to help us with the solution. Just look at Jesus before he was handed over…he turned to God in prayer asking for help to overcome the solution. Jesus knew what had to be done, but he also knew that he needed help to take those steps. Here is the passage from Mark 14:32-36...

"They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."'