King Sisyphus prided himself on his cleverness. Any why not, he was a very clever man. So much so that when Thanatos, the god of death, came a calling to chain this clever king on the banks of the river Styx, in preparation for his final journey to the underworld, Sisyphus was able to trick Thanatos into chaining himself.
The gods were not impressed. They likely enjoyed clever people, but when Sisyphus used his strength to control or coerce, the gods turned the table. Zeus decreed that Sisyphus would spend eternity pushing a large heavy boulder to the top of the mountain. His punishment would end once both he and the boulder reached the top.
As soon as Sisyphus got close to the summit, Zeus would cause the boulder to roll back to the bottom of the mountain. I would call that eternal frustration.
Clever? Well, if you are Zeus, then yes. If you are Sisyphus, you have all eternity to wonder how your strength became your weakness.
In a speech given by Elder Oaks at BYU, he spoke on how we can fall into similar traps. He gave several examples of strengths, many of us have or some of us desire, becoming nothing more than a boulder reluctant to reach the top of a mountain.
With today being Sunday and the weather being hot, I encourage each of you to read this great talk and let me know your thoughts.
Have a great Sunday and apologize to Br. Sikahema for me posting this during Sacrament meeting.
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