Swimming Upstream

Dear Daughters,

Last week we went to Fish Ladder Park in downtown Grand Rapids.  It was a rare t-shirt day in November so we packed a picnic lunch and headed out for a homeschooling excursion. 

I’ve read about salmon swimming upstream to spawn and the cement ladders people have built for the salmon to get there when dams block the way, but I had no idea there was a ladder so near our home.

God blessed salmon with an extraordinary sense of smell imprinted from their birth, so they are compelled to go back to their location of origin in order to spawn the next generation.  But in order to do so they need to swim upstream for at least 150 miles.  Yes, they’re fish and made to swim, but swimming upstream?  Those persistent little creatures certainly do not take the easy way.

Swimming upstream.  

What does that look like in our society today?

 When I arrived home from that pleasant afternoon at the fish ladder, I got thinking about how easy it is to go with the flow.  It’s easy to join in the clamor, the quick judgments of Fake News or Not So Fake News (who can tell the difference?) the name-calling, the slander, the accusations and all the volatile words flying around in our society.  It’s no effort at all to join in the belligerent choir against everyone who disagrees with us.  Yet,

Call out culture is exhausting.

What if we spent more time catching people doing good and less time finding fault?

says Scott Sauls

Catching people doing good.  Hmmm… that certainly takes more effort than to criticize and complain, and I think it would definitely be considered swimming upstream in our world today.  Living is difficult, and by looking at our current situation it may not get easier any time soon.  Because of the constant barrage of media and talking heads I know sometimes it’s tough catching people doing good, but to choose between a pandemic of finding fault and a pandemic of catching people doing good, I will choose the latter.

Swimming upstream in our culture also means giving thanks.  During this season when a pandemic of ingratitude and yet another lockdown has arrived in Michigan, it’s so easy to concentrate on what we have lost, what we lack, and the frustration that accompanies so many disappointments. There is much heartache, sickness, loneliness and boredom with yet another Zoom meeting, putting on the masks, social distancing… 

Yet we still have so much, and we can choose gratitude in the midst of all the newest executive orders accompanied by the slander and indictments all around.  Giving thanks has always been the more difficult way – the swimming upstream way – but it’s also the only way to receive joy. 

I pulled out my gratitude journal again last week.  I had been verbally giving thanks to God as a daily spiritual discipline, but writing out one gift after another with pen in hand seems to be more permanent.  I tend to forget what I say with my mouth, but when writing one word after another, my gratitude journal becomes a book of remembrance.   Remembering all the good gifts I enjoyed yesterday, last week, the month before, the year before, and even decades before.  We can still give thanks for

hot oatmeal in the morning

the aroma of baking squash in the oven

feeling the grief of death

being able to talk with friends on the phone if not in person

a walk down the lane

opening up a green and red Christmas decoration box

listening to a friend’s sadness

singing a song

remembering the promises and love of Jesus that are the same yesterday, today and forever

I wonder if those salmon swimming up stream ever fear that they may not make it to their birthplace in order to spawn?  Since I haven’t studied the emotional fears of fish who swim upstream, I can’t say for sure but one thing I imagine is that they keep their eyes on the end goal.  To bring new life to yet more salmon.

What is our goal?  I don’t know about yours, but my goal is to become more like Jesus, that my character will be formed by His Spirit and that I will grow and produce the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.  In order to cultivate that fruit I will have to swim upstream and away from the current cultural pandemics of fear, ingratitude, and finding fault.

Swimming upstream is certainly more challenging than floating down with the crowds, but if God gave lowly salmon the desire and ability to go upstream, won’t He also give us the strength to be a light in a dark world by swimming upstream in a world of despair?

Love, Mom