The world in which we live is full of imperfect people trying imperfectly to achieve (hopefully) eventual perfection. Even at our best, we fall short. Even at our best we cannot achieve our desired level of perfection.
Eliminate from my previous assumptions about my bike trip the belief I could have made it had I not shared with Rick.
As we progress daily, we lack capability to alone achieve the Destination we seek. I was not able to get there on my own, nor was Rick. In reality, none of us can do anything except give the journey all we have.
Rick gave everything to reach the church; I gave everything to climb as far as I did. As we work toward our Destination–and we should never not be working toward it, even as we take joy in progress and in journeying–we will never achieve it alone.
We must have atonement to make up for our imperfection. That needs to be ok. It was Father’s plan from day one. We would imperfectly blunder toward Him like a balance-challenged toddler and when our efforts caused us to fall, Jesus would pick us up, dust us off and help us take the next step. On utter and final exhaustion, He provides to means to reach Father and complete our bumbling, but well-intentioned journey.