We moved from Portland, Oregon in a 1927 Buick touring car, pulling a fully-loaded trailer. Into the homestead was a questionable road which wandered through the adjoining property and several hundred yards of clay and peat. During the rainy season, that area was covered with six to twelve inches of water. It was difficult to drive through. That was the reason for the planks. When the car slipped off the planks, it was quite a job getting it unstuck and back on them.
Before long we built a new road with a more direct route to the highway. The new road went through a shorter span of bog land, a sandy area, and then up a short, but very steep hill. In those days we had neither a bull-dozer nor money for one. Everything was done by hand and hard work. The new road proved to be a handy short-cut to the highway – that is – when we could get up that steep hill with the old Buick.
If we got a good run at the hill, everything was fine. But at the bottom of the hill, there was loose sand and the hill itself was mostly hard-pan, so traction was not the best. In wet weather, it was easier because the tires could get a better grip on the earth.
Some times we had to back down and get a better run at the hill. Often, we would have to get out and push to help the car move forward. But, with determination, push, trying and repeated effort, we usually made the grade.
After two or three years of this, a man brought in his bull dozer and in an amazingly short time, cleared away trees and brush along the hillside to carve out a new roadway with a much easier grade. It was so much easier to get up the hill, then!
You may be wondering why I am telling you this story and what it has to do with success and prosperity. The point is this: You can’t make it to the top of the hill by staying at the bottom!
You Can Always Get to the Top!
You can always reach the top of the hill, or your ultimate goal, if you make enough effort. Sometimes you are required to back down and get a better run at it. Sometimes you need to get out and push (instead of just sitting there and letting somebody else do it).
If you really desire to make it, then you will make your own effort; make your own contribution. Better yet, you will make sure you have good traction in the first place. Eventually, you will find a better route, even a better vehicle, but with effort, time, and persistence, you will make it.
If you are really determined to have a better life, to experience greater prosperity and enjoy the riches of the Universe which yours to enjoy, you will make the effort. You are not meant to live in lack. If you have believed so, a change in your thinking is in order.
T W A
The best traction I know of is Divine Substance. When you establish your life, your success and prosperity upon Divine Substance, you are founding it upon the only real “stuff” out of which, all things are made.
Although you can not see Divine Substance with your physical eyes, it is always present and puts solidity into your plans and effort. You shape it with your Thoughts, Words, and Actions. (TWA) It sounds like the old airline! Remember these letters and let them remind you that you shape Divine Substance through your Thoughts, Words, and Actions. Your life, health, happiness, and prosperity are created by your Thoughts, Words, and Actions
Backing Down Doesn’t Mean You Have Failed
Do not be afraid to back down! Sometimes you may need to get a better run at the hill. It doesn’t mean that you have failed. Some people will just sit down when they have made a little effort toward realizing prosperity. They get excited and think about all the wonderful riches they will finally experience. They get under way, but when they come to the first hill (obstacle or challenge), and they experience difficulty, if things don’t work out quickly, they back down and don’t try again.
Maybe they got off the planks and bogged down in negative thinking again, giving in to feelings of lack or limitation, and believing they “were not meant to prosper.”
When you need to back down, it may mean that your goals and plans need some refining. It is often good to stop your forward motion and reconnect with God within you and examine your goals to make sure your plans are in order before you move forward again.
You Can’t Make it to the Top of the Hill by Staying at the Bottom
Don’t just sit there. Get out and push! Do whatever needs doing by you. Keep your eye on the top of the hill (the prize), and determine you will get there, with God’s help. Sometimes, when you run into an obstacle on the royal road to riches, it means that you need to back down, center yourself in the presence of God within you, and let His mighty power move you more easily upward.
Where do you want to go? What do you desire to have, do, or be? Only by aiming yourself in the direction of your desires, and moving toward your goals, will you reach them. Say, “I Can and I will.” Then proceed, and keep going.