Going up the down escalator

I just came across a quote from one of my newfound theological heroes that I wanted to share with you…

“After all, it is true that we must all seek to make some kind of progress in the Christian life. The difficulty with the idea of the ladder, however, is that it tends to send us off in the wrong direction. It tends to make us concerned with works of pious sublimation; it involves us in the task of ascending to heaven when we should be seeking like our Lord to come down to earth, to learn what it means to be a Christian here on this earth.”

— Where God Meets Man: Luther's Down-to-earth Approach to the Gospel by Gerhard O. Forde

We are finally free to get off our spiritual/moral/performancistic ladders because, according to the gospel, God ain’t up there.

We humans seem to have the incurable propensity to incessantly strain to race up the down escalator of faith. We try to run up to meet God when God only moves one direction: down (ontologically speaking) to us. And consequently, we feel productive as can be, but we don’t get anywhere.

Racing ahead might work when it comes to running a 5k, but it doesn’t work at all with God.

Faith allows us to stop where we are and be carried down the escalator back to human ground.

Because this is where God meets us.
No climbing necessary.

Grace & Godspeed,
Jonas