I don’t think we can create “knots” that result in stasis, no. I mean I can get my mind in a knot, no doubt – hahaha! I used to think that people could just stand still, but Jesus said we are always moving closer or further away in Spirit, always….by every choice made, by every response made. Spiritual insight is a function of or a fulcrum for response-ability I think. If we always choose the same response, not only is there no progress, but another opportunity is lost – we lose ground, and are now further from progress – we regress by every bad or wrong choice. Spirit gravity is always an increasing force or a decreasing force. Such measurements may be miniscule, I have no clue.
I also once thought that we progressed by our goals and our intentions, and in some small degree that may be true. But I think we accelerate our progress when we relinquish the “plan” and the “strategies” and real-ize that what we’re really here to learn is how to respond to every intersection of choice – whether good, bad, tragic, or mundane – we hurtle through a life of intersections, both events and relationships which demand a response. How do we respond? Why? What underlays our decisions and our motives and our priorities and how do those improve or impair our response? Some of us react. And some of us feel our plans are threatened by what happens to us and around us. Some of us depend so heavily upon the approval or actions of others and leave us so disappointed and so helpless. Some of us are mired in the here and now of material attachments and define everything by its relation to our material comforts and wealth and pleasures.
But some of us are learning to “look into” and “see” the nature of these intersections to discover the opportunity to discern and express the Spirit perspective – another opportunity to learn, to discover the better how to respond to every event and every encounter. Some of us are soul builders and not accidental ones, but purposefully choosing. As Reader pointed out so well – once we get past discerning good from bad (that would be pre-school level work as the TA arrives upon passing that first such examination or test), we must then begin to wrestle with moral dilemmas and the least bad and most good choices where such discernments are not nearly so easy. And soon, we must real-ize the importance of such choosing to our own well being and the well being of others. Are we “obedient” to avoid punishment? Or are we kind and generous because of the fruit that arrives in mind and into soul by such wisdom?
As you say Bonita, and the Revelation confirms, direction is far more important than speed. It’s not a race or a timed event. But you are always moving….one direction or the other I think.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
