Swimming upstream
SALMON…is a unique ray-finned fish. Seems to be always swimming upstream. I’m not a fisherman but many of my friends are. Some go to Alaska and bring back an incredible amount to feast on during the year, even to share with family and friends. There are varying species, freshwater and saltwater (wild and farmed). Their cousins are trout, char, grayling and whitefish.
Typically, they are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean and return to fresh water to reproduce. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn. This has been proven to be mostly true. They seem to have an olfactory memory (recollection of odors). Figure that one out! Go God!
Going against the flow
We were once at a lock where we got to see the salmon swimming back from the ocean. They are using what appears to be every ounce of strength to return to their habitat. Splashing, jumping, maneuvering the rapids and other obstacles. They know where they are going, but the odds seem to be stacked against them. That day I gained a lot of admiration for the salmon. Up close, you see what appears to be scars from their travails and travel. Wouldn’t you?
Dads, you may be akin to the salmon in many ways. But the one I find so compelling in today’s world, especially in America, is the fact that you are swimming upstream. In this modern culture, if you are one who is attempting to be the dad…God wants you to be, you are not mainstream. The current is hitting you in the face head on. The world has become your enemy to succeed, and boy, is Satan ever mad that you would be that kind of dad. From the very moment of creation, God ordained you to be the servant-leader in your home. It did not take long for the enemy to jump all over that in the Garden, and we men have been swimming against the tide ever since.
Today, as never before in my lifetime, the family, and especially you the father, is under heavy attack from all sides. By siding with God and his plan for the family, you have become that salmon in the stream. I commend you for the choice you have made. And the good news is you have an Advocate, swimming there with you. He knows every stream well; how to maneuver the rapids and skirt the fatal obstacles. “Because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn. 4.4b).
You are an overcomer
Just like those determined and purposeful salmon, you are an overcomer. Nothing will be able to deter you. It is written—so believe it, trust it!
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 Jn. 5.4,5)
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16.33).
What are you facing today as a dad, as a husband? What are you needing to overcome? Are you relying on your own strength or on the strength of the One who has already overcome every issue you are facing or will face? Jesus, through the presence and power of His Holy Spirit, has already gone ahead of you and overcome that which you are encountering. He knows all the locations of the hazards that are in your ‘stream of fatherhood’. There is no one that wants you to succeed as a dad and husband more than He.
The salmon has nothing on you. You both are overcomers! Jesus created both of you. He gave the salmon instincts, he gave you faith! Believe me, it’s everything you need!
