From 21st Century Science and Health:

On our spiritual journey, if we sympathize with mortality, we will be at the beck and call of error and follow a zig-zag course getting nowhere. If we travel with the worldly minded, we get sucked into a nasty cycle. A good example of this is randomly walking around the shopping mall, making feel-good purchases, and eating junk food with friends. We return home, thinking we had a good time and feeling satisfied. However, when re-thinking the situation we realize that too much time and money was wasted. So, we repeat the trip to the mall but buy books on time and financial management, or dieting.

Our moral and spiritual progress will be monotonously slow if we constantly bounce back and forth between futile habits and the hope of forgiveness. Selfishness and stupidity cause constant retrogression. We must wake up to Christ’s demand, however, the waking generally causes suffering. We feel like we are drowning. We struggle to stay above the water. And, through Christ’s precious love our efforts are rewarded with success.