Speed X Time = Distance

A vehicle traveling 60 Miles Per Hour can, in two hours, cover a distance of 120 miles. A vehicle traveling 30 MPH can cover the same distance, but it would take twice as long. On the other hand, a vehicle traveling 120 MPH can travel 240 miles in the same amount of time it took the 60 MPH vehicle to travel 120 miles. Speed X Time = Distance.

Using that equation and those three vehicles as examples, how far could a vehicle traveling One MPH go? It all depends on how long they keep going.

In sports, there's usually a time limit. If you didn't score as many points as you wanted to by the time the time ran out, you didn't make it - at least, not in that game. In school, there's a time limit. If you don't complete an assignment by the time it's due, the teacher probably won't let you turn it in, or will at least decrease the grade you would have gotten on the assignment, which would affect your over-all grade. In blogging, I have a time limit. If I don't post my blog update by 12 Noon each day, my blog posts will be "late," and if I don't post anything on my blog by midnight, I didn't blog that day at all.

In life itself, there is also a time limit (sort of). If you don't do or accomplish something by the time you die, then your time is effectively "up." For example, if you don't repent by the time you die, you may not get another chance.

Yet, that doesn't mean that we need to reach our ultimate goal, perfection, by the time we die. That would be nearly impossible, no matter what your rate of progress is. The thing I love most about eternal progression is that we practically have an eternity to complete it. Even if our rate of spiritual progression  is comparable to only 1 MPH, and even if the difference between our current state and perfection is comparable to a distance of 1 Million Miles, or 24 Million Miles, or even 8,760 Million Miles, we can still get there. It'll just take us 1 Million hours, or 1 Million days, or 1 Million years of travel to get there. And with the perspective of ETERNITY, even 1 Million years seems like a short period of time.

Any Speed X Infinite Time = Infinite Distance.

Yet, that's not always true, either. There are some speeds at which a person could travel for even an infinite amount of time and never get any closer to their goal. Such is the case if a person is traveling in the wrong direction, or not moving at all. We'll never make it to the Celestial Kingdom if the choices we make point us to the Telestial Kingdom. But if we're making any kind of progress toward the Celestial Kingdom, even if it's two steps forward, one step back, we'll make it there eventually.

There may be people reading this, myself included, if I decide to read it later, who feel like they're not making any progress at all, or at least not any positive progress. To those people, I'd advise them to keep trying. The principle of spiritual inertia may be at work, and it'll take some effort to get on the right track and build up speed. Also, if the vehicle you're in is only traveling 1 Mile Per Hour, it may seem like it's not moving at all, but it is. Don't give up. Moving forward at any speed is still moving forward, and you have an infinite amount of time to cross that finish line. You'll make it eventually, as long as you don't quit.

That said, it's no excuse for lingering. The faster your spiritual progression is, the sooner you'll reach your goal. By working hard, we can advance more quickly, which is exciting, especially for those of us who don't have amazing amounts of patience.

No matter how far from our goal we feel we are, we have a finite amount of distance to travel, and in infinite amount of time to get there. We can get there relatively quickly by advancing quickly, or we can get there eventually as long as we're making any progress at all, so there's no reason to get discouraged. Our goal is not unobtainable, or even unrealistic. We can do it, as long as we don't quit.