Up or Down

 
Look at this ladder. Is it an Up ladder or a Down ladder? It can be either, can't it? The rungs on a ladder are neutral. They are merely steps that facilitate whichever direction we have chosen to go.

The events in our lives are like rungs on a ladder. Some events are joyful and some are painful. But the events themselves have no power to determine our destination, just as rungs on a ladder cannot determine whether we go up or down.

We decide whether each event leads us upward toward God or downward into darkness. The agonizing loss that one person uses as a step toward addiction, propels another toward God. The painful childhood that one uses as a step downward, is for another the rung that brings them up toward a heavenly Father. We become the people God created us to be when we stop blaming the ladder.

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