Hope Springs Eternal

A coiled spring is a device that stores energy - when it is stretched, it exerts a force to snap back in place, and when it is compressed downwards, it uses the energy stored inside of it to spring back up to its original shape. The more coils that a spring has, the more energy can be channeled through it, and the greater resistance and resilience it will have to withstand the forces that try to crush it or bend it out of shape. If an ant were to travel along the coiled wire that makes up a steam, it may seem to the ant that it is just going around and around in circles and each time it is only advancing a negligible amount upwards - mere millimeters per cycle. Such slow upward progress can be painfully frustrating. If we have gone through the cycle of sinning, feeling godly sorrow, repenting, going forth with faith and hope and love for our Heavenly Father, for our brothers and sisters, and for ourselves, only to end up sinning again, and we have repeated this cycle not once or twice, but dozens, hundreds, even thousands of times, it is understandable if we start to feel discouraged, despondent, and even doubtful that we will ever make anything good of our lives. We may start to wonder if we are perhaps broken beyond repair, fundamentally flawed beyond redemption, sick and wounded beyond healing, lost beyond saving. In our dejection and despair we sometimes forget that we must learn line upon line, cycle upon cycle, coil upon coil. If we find that we have once again fallen off the wagon, this is not further evidence of our unsurmountable weakness. Rather, it is an opportunity for us to add another coil to our spring. If we have sinned and sought forgiveness but seven times, then our spring will not have the strength and the resistance that it might have if we instead followed through with the cycle of repentance and forgiveness seventy times seven times. There are forces in this world that will try to crush us flat or to stretch and bend us beyond our breaking point. Each of our coils is brittle and weak on its own, but together a many-coiled spring can withstand tremendous forces and still bounce back to its original shape. We are not wasting time if we have to go once more round the repentance cycle. As Jesus taught to Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7, those who have sinned much and have been forgiven much have also loved much, but those who have been forgiven little also love little. It requires a supreme act of hope to coil ourselves round and round the Savior's love and mercy again and again no matter how many times we fall short, especially when each line takes us only one or two millimeters higher towards our ultimate goal. And if it takes us literally an infinite number of times to repent and try each time to be a little better than last time, that is OK, because we will have all eternity to add line upon line. After all, as they say, hope springs eternal.