On Preparation-Day we missionaries try to find something cool to do together. Its often sports or playing games together. Something that we have done a few weeks now is going to a little creek with some waterfalls called Hi Tor.Its a really cool place to go. The water doesn't get much more than ankle deep, but there are about 4 waterfalls that are there are amazing, and the last falls are probably close to 50 feet tall.
So this last week we went there, and before I had happy to look at the large falls, but this week I really wanted to get to the top. I didn't climb the falls like most of my fellow missionaries, but went around climbing up the gully side. We found a rope to help us climb up the side, and we took it to make it easier and safer to down the falls.
After throwing some rocks in to the pool at the bottom we came down, and about 10 feet from the bottom the helpful little steps to get down and the rope ran out. So using the last few feet of rope, I tried to get over to a better run to climb down free hand. Right as I was going to get to the safety the rope conveniently decided to snap. I was lucky enough to only fall down a couple feet before I stopped myself, but that was scary to fall even that far unsure of where I would stop before the rock floor.By the time the adrenalin rush wore off I started to think about what had happened, and if the rope had been long enough to make it those last treacherous 10 feet. It still would have been hard work, but it would have a simple trial.
I realized that Christ is like our rope. Unlike my short and weak rope, Christ has an infinite rope of infinite strength. We can rely on his help no matter how deep we are trying to climb from or how difficult our next pass is. And when the pass gets impossible to climb, when we have gone as far as we can, when we just don't have anything left to give he can carry us past those points.
As I have thought about and pondered the atonement I realize that is doesn't make things easy. It doesn't take away our personal effort, or even our responsibility. Rather it allows us to do the impossible, what we simply cannot do ourselves.
