Led Zeppelin creates some pretty accurate imagery regarding our journey to Heaven. Stairway to Heaven. We envision marble white stairs winding upwards to disappear high in the clouds, the top so far up it is out of our sight. Or maybe they're made of wood, worn from being heavily traveled. Either way, we see stairs--not an escalator where we don't even have to lift a foot to take a step, and certainly not an elevator that shoots us straight into Heaven like a rocket. Sometimes we forget that getting to Heaven isn't quite so easy as pressing a button and waiting behind closed doors to reach the top floor. It's a little more challenging than that.
It may start out like a breeze, and we may be invigorated and excited about the climb. Completely on fire for God, nothing will stand in our way of completing our journey to spend eternity with Him! We take off full speed ahead, taking those bottom stairs two at a time.
Soon, though, our initial adrenaline wears off and we start to slow down. The stairs seem to get steeper and steeper as we're faced with greater challenges. Our legs get heavy and it feels like we've just climbed the Empire State Building and still have the whole Eiffel Tower to go. Our goal seems so far away and we now look backwards in longing. Going down would be so much easier...
Isn't this how we feel at times? That the closer we get to Heaven, the harder the climb gets? We're faced with decisions to make greater sacrifices, sacrifices we may not have thought we'd have to make at first. Starting out all we had to worry about was taking those first few steps--saying yes to Christ. Now we're being asked to give up so much more! Certain movies, music, fashions and even jobs? All these things we were so attached to...they made us fit into this world, they're part of our identity. We never imagined we would be asked to sacrifice them. Our legs start to drag...
As we struggle to climb closer to our goal and become deeper in our faith, the temptations become deeper and more challenging as well. Why? The devil watches anxiously as we slip out of his reach and climb closer to God--he becomes desperate to keep us grounded and will throw anything in our path to hold us back. The devil knows what we struggle with and uses it to his advantage to try to pull us back towards him. Sometimes he succeeds and stops us in our tracks. We make excuses and justify holding onto things that keep us from furthering our journey. The nudity in that movie's not that bad...I don't actually listen to the lyrics of the song...everyone else I know is wearing that same outfit...it doesn't matter that my company provides support for Planned Parenthood as long as I don't personally...And if we're not careful it'll do more than just prevent us from moving forward, it will make us retreat backwards.
So how do we keep maintain the strength to make it all the way to the top of the stairway to Heaven? By leaning on Christ for support. Because while the elevator doors may be closed due to original sin, Christ opened up the stairway so we can still join Him in Heaven. And Christ knows every step and every pitfall along the way. All we need to do is lock arms with Him and move forward one step at a time. When we get tired, we just lean on Christ to help us through the tough parts, and ask Him to assist us in shedding the heaviness of sin that weighs us down.
Don't let the pressures of sin prevent us from climbing up the stairway of Heaven. These worldly temptations that cling to us aren't going to be there for us in the end and won't do anything but bring us down into the trenches. The path to God may be tough at times and we may even feel close to giving up, but keep pushing on! Nothing will be more satisfying once we reach the top and get to participate in the most beautiful view ever!
In the words of Led Zeppelin, "there are two paths you can go by".
Make sure to choose the stairway to Heaven. It will be so much more worth it.
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