Swimming Upstream?
Salmon have long commanded both my imagination and my appetite. (Hmm - salmon agree with my palate so well that I am sure they are food from Eden.)
The annual salmon run is as much about death as it is about life.
Salmon can range from 3lbs to 100lbs in weight. They live from 2 years to 8 years. Salmon spawn in safer regions and literally lose their life to give new life.
At peak condition mature salmon begin their journey to martyrdom. The salmon must navigate many threats, migrating against boiling rapids, leaping their way forward to the next generation.
The Lord has set His people swimming upstream against the world's currents. They are a spiritual salmon, who must too migrate upstream of this world to reproduce.
It is those who have stayed the battles, withstood the currents and dodged the fishing bears who have successfully died to self and can then give birth. There is no new birth without pain.
Exhaustion isn't the key to give up in the Lord's service; instead it is the divine hint that you are so close to reproducing - winning!
The deepest agonies and loudest groans are immediately before birth.
So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. (2 Corinthians 12:15a)
Grasp the significance of the great pain, the value that can never be audited, for the Christian's lifelong run is as much about death to produce new birth, as the salmon's - but this new life is not stamped with a 'use-by date'.
Tenacity is the mother of triumph.
Today's Soul Snippet:
“It is impossible to be faithful at prayer while also being impatient in prayer.” ~ Michael Cartwright
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