The Third Law of Laddernity

Everyone celebrates the famous Albert Einstein, but how many people appreciate the genius of Alfie Epstein. Just this past Wednesday I was contemplating his Third Law of Laddernity. Epstein’s law describes a phenomenon with which every tradesman and handyman is well acquainted. The precocious intellect stated the law rather urbanely, using terms like hypotonus, angle of acclivity and bangnacity … but I’ll try to put the law in layman’s terms. The force of gravity on small objects increases exponentially with every step you take up a ladder.

You’re trying to attach a hanger bracket for a shade to the ceiling at an elevation of roughly 1,400 hundred feet, and suddenly the screw jerks sideways, is torn from your hand and hurtles to earth at exactly the farthest point from your ladder. It is likely that the screw (did I mention it’s your last one) will come to rest under a heavy object too close to the floor to reach under. You believe this was just clumsiness … but it was actually the Law of Laddernity. If you are working alone, the effect quadruples! If your wife is out of earshot … determine the power of the affect by taking the obtuse angle of a ladder, multiplied by the number of steps, times ten to the thirty-forth power. Some jobs just weren’t meant to be done alone.

A person could have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ in total isolation … but that wasn’t Plan A. The Christian life was not meant to be lived in alone. I easily could produce dozens of Bible verses that speak to God’s design for Christian community. Maybe just one will do for now.

Epstein and his law are fictitious … but this law isn’t:

Carry each other’s burdens and it this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

 
 

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