Faith That Climbs the Ladder

God told two people to hold a contest
to see which of them could reach him first.
One decided to climb high on a ladder in search of God;
the other decided to drive a car in search of him.
The one who chose the ladder climbed, rung after rung,
up a ladder that stood reaching into the sky,
watching the car race swiftly across the wide land below,
envying it without end and resenting their own hard climb.
The one who had thought a car would bring them
to God in no time saw nothing but land, however far they drove,
and fear began to rise in them.
To outrun that fear, they drove faster still.
The one climbing slowly, afraid of falling,
looked at the sweat running down their brow
and blamed their own weakness.
‘If only I could drive a car like that one, how much easier it would be.’
How long did the one race on, and the other climb in fear?
The one who did nothing but drive came at last to the sea at the end of the land,
but God was nowhere to be found.
The one who climbed and kept on climbing the ladder came to meet God,
who had been waiting for them all along.
Welcoming them gladly, he said,
“However far you run with your eyes on the things of the earth,
in the end it is only the earth you will find.
But the ladder of faith, though it is hard to climb
and slow going, has no way that leads down,
and that is why you have come to meet me like this.
You have been faithful in a very little;
now enter the rest I have prepared for you.”
— To a world riding in its car, faith may look foolish,
but to see that God is not to be found out in the wide world,
and to climb the ladder that is Christ, is the wisdom of those who believe.