Climbing hills

I climbed a hill yesterday.  It was a long hill.  It was a steep hill.  It was a long, steep hill.  It was the kind of hill that, just when you think you're reaching the top, you walk around a bend and realize the hill continues.

It was hard.  And there was a point, about halfway up, but not really, because of the hill continuing beyond the bend, when I wanted to stop and turn around.  I really did.  I did not want to climb that hill.  I really didn't.

But then I remembered what I did want.  I did want to walk a circuit around the river formerly known as Little Falls Lake.  And in order to do what I did want, I had to do something I didn't want.  Sure, I arranged my path to make it the easiest I could, but there were still obstacles in my path, including that hill.

So I continued.  I kept lifting up one foot and placing it in front of the other until I reached the top.

That's life.  In order to do what we really want, we have to do some things we don't.  And there will always be obstacles in our path.  Things that are hard.  In the face of obstacles it is so easy to forget our overall goal.  And if we let those things discourage and defeat us, we will never accomplish what we set out to do.  That's when we need to just do the next right thing.  We need to keep moving.  We need to take the next step, in faith, putting one foot in front of the other, not knowing if ultimately we will be successful, but knowing for certain that if we give up, we will not succeed.

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My friends, what is the obstacle you're facing today?  How can you do the next right thing?  How can you take the next step?