Over the years I've seen a lot of stairs.  I notice them a lot more now than I used to.  Me knees tend to tell me about them. I recently built some stairs.  For an amateur wood-butcher building a way from one level to another can be a challenge.  As this video and article show a stair doesn't have to be off very much to make it a tripping point.  A well designed and built set of stairs is such that a person can go up or down without thinking about what their feet are doing.  A poorly made set requires "watching where you step."
I've only been up and down my new staircase a couple of times, but I think it is going to be OK.   There is a descent, however, that I don't want to be smooth.  Jesus told a story about a man who lived in the lap of luxury.  As happens to us all, he died.  He found himself in hell.  No one told him to "watch that last step!"  An old proverb uses a slightly different metaphor.  As is usually the case, C. S. Lewis says it well.  

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."  

I suppose we could say that good preaching--indeed the task of the church in general is to put some tripping points along the way. 
"Huh, what was that?"
"That, my friend, is one of the consequences of sin, or of life in this sin cursed world.  By the way, do you know where this road is headed?  

  

It's STTA