The life of a salmon is very interesting. From the fresh water rivers, they go through their normal life cycle as eggs and fingerlings and eventually live in the sea. But once they reach maturity, they have an absolute resolve to go back to their spawning grounds, hundreds or thousands of kilometres away. The trip back to their spawning
grounds is a seemingly
impossible task, full of dangers, traps, and obstacles, as they will
be swimming against the
overbearing current of the rivers.
Many of the salmon die going
back to their grounds – bears
and birds of prey catch them and
eat them. Some of them hit the
rocks, logs, and other obstacles
along the way and die.
Sometimes they have to swim
through shallow waters just to
get through their journey. But
they never stop or rest from
swimming against the current –
otherwise it would carry them
away from their destination. The
incredible things is, in order for
them to reach their spawning
grounds, they have to jump
upstream, up a waterfall and
sometimes more than once in
their journey. Many of their
jumps fail but they persist – until
they get through the waterfall, or
die trying. Against all odds, many
of them eventually reach their
spawning grounds and a new
generation of salmon eggs are
laid and later hatch to become
fingerlings. You can probably
count yourself lucky not to be a
salmon!
But you are a Christian. And
guess what? The odds are
stacked heavily against you if you
are resolved to follow God. And
there is a very strong current
that is sweeping across the face
earth. A current of wickedness,
immorality, blatant and not so
blatant sin. Acceptance and
practice of ungodly values and
activities pervade the world we
live in.
I really don’t know who is in a
better place – the salmon
swimming upstream to their
spawning grounds or us
Christians trying to live holy lives
in an unholy world.
Pursue...holiness, without which
no one will see the Lord
(Hebrews 12:14). God desires us
to pursue holiness at all costs,
because without holiness we
cannot see the Lord. Make no
mistake about it – the world that
we live in is an unholy world. We
need to actively pursue holiness
if we desire to draw closer to
God, because the world will not
give us holiness on a silver
platter but will put all hindrances
and obstacles in front of us. It is
extremely difficult to win the
battle, and we need to learn from
the salmon: to have an absolute
resolve, come what may, to reach
our “spawning grounds” –
heaven.