The Parable of Momentum

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a lot of things in my life. And I have a tendency to start linking everything I see or hear to whatever is taking a center roll in my life at the moment. Lately, for instance, I have been thinking a lot about inertia and gravity and how you can’t turn a 747 on a dime.

I think this is an important set of concepts that my mind has never really grasped before. I wonder how often we look at a commercial airplane on the runway and realize that it can’t just leave the ground without a little momentum. Gravity pulls and claws at the mass and tries to hold it down. Do you think we could have convinced anybody 200 years or more ago that something that size could leave the ground and stay airborne for hours? It is absolutely amazing how adding enough momentum can do wonders toward advancing us heavenward.

I have heard that the hardest part of reaching the moon or orbiting the planet is breaking Earth’s gravity. Large pieces of gear strapped to every shuttle NASA launches falls off before it ever makes it to space because its only purpose is to push that shuttle forward, adding momentum to the ascension every second it burns fuel. It is amazing to watch and staggering to think about and presumably difficult to execute.

I guess what I’m getting at are the gravitational pulls that hold down the hearts and minds of mankind, such as habit and ease; trial and temptation, etc. Sometimes we look at what we are facing in life and bemoan the fact that it seems like we have been asked to single handedly move a mountain to the other side of the world, one tablespoonful at time. But when we really examine that mountain we can see that it is a fully operational airplane that just needs a little push to get it started and a lot of fuel to continue its momentum. The most difficult part of the whole journey is getting that plane off of the runway in one piece without backing off or pulling back on the throttle.

I once had a seminary teacher who encouraged us to begin a habit of reading The Book of Mormon daily by telling us that we could get full credit by reading at least 15 seconds a day and at least 15 minutes in a week at the same time (you do the math). I had never before mastered myself enough to make a daily habit of scripture reading because I felt I had to read at least 30 minutes to make it worth my time, but that 30 minutes seemed too difficult to get going. Really all I needed was to get my feet wet every day to build up my momentum.

I hope you understand where I am going with this idea. I have been thinking about it for so long that it feels good just to get it written.

Ginger

Scriptures:

Alma 37:6 (The Book of Mormon)

Luke 1:37 (King James New Testament)

I thought I would include this video in case you had ten minutes to view something truly spectacular. Enjoy!