A good slinky makes for a bunch of fun science demonstrations. This was a fun one to try: Hold onto the top of a slinky and then watch the bottom as you let go of the slinky. The bottom stays basically in place while the top keeps it pulled up.
Even gravity can’t bring the bottom down…as long as the top holds it up.
Mark 8:31-33 says, “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”
Peter seems to have had a good desire—to not see Jesus have to die. But Jesus had a higher purpose, and Peter needed to savor (value) those higher things.
When we value the things of God, nothing can bring us down because God will hold us up and keep us going. And He will bring good from bad.
So even when life tries to bring us down, it won’t be able to…as long as we look to God and not ourselves.