Horizontal Progress

We tend to view progress along the gospel path in terms of vertical elevation. When we do good works, we are rising, and when we do evil works we are falling. Many of us have a righteous desire to break out of the pride cycle of rising and falling, and just always be rising. But progress need not only be measured along the vertical, z-axis. If you consider walking from that vertical z-axis, it may seem pretty pointless. Each foot rises momentarily only to fall back to pretty much the exact same level. Vertically, your feet are basically doing nothing. It's like the pride cycle, they rise and then they fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. But horizontally, it's a different story. Every time we lift and then let fall our feet and seem to be making next to no progress vertically, we are nevertheless making all kinds of progress horizontally. The Savior has asked us to walk the gospel path. This does not mean never falling or failing. It means picking our feet back up again when they fall, because this is how walking works. Walking the path means making the right choice and then making the wrong choice and then making the right choice again. It means being selfless and then being selfish and then being selfless again. It means going forth with faith and then holding back in doubt and then going forth with faith once more. It means repenting and then sinning and then repenting again. Every mistake and failure and sin and bad day and fall is part of walking the gospel path just as surely as every good choice and success and righteous act and rising is part of walking the gospel path. We can try with all our might to leap off the ground, to try to stay airborne with good thoughts and good vibes and good intentions as long as we can, but as long as we live in a fallen world, we are going to fall. But if we focus a little less on the vertical progress, or seeming lack thereof, and more on the horizontal progress, we will find that perhaps we mind a little less the constant rise and fall of our feet when we think of how far horizontally we've traveled along the gospel path. God gave us feet to rise and fall as we make our way through this mortal life, but when we come back home He will give us wings to rise and never fall again.