Salmon

Oh, how I love salmon. All grilled and seasoned, perfectly flaky inside with crispy edges. Served on a bed of rice with a slice of lemon. Prepared by some God-inspired chef, like Keltie. In fact, salmon is my third favorite food, right after cookie dough and crab legs. Oh, those three…like the holy trinity of dining! And when I eat salmon, I feel all healthy…you know, Omega 3’s and Vitamin D…good for the heart!

Salmon are fascinating creatures. They migrate, go away from home to “grow up”, then return to have their babies…coming home, in a way, like a prodigal son. They are adaptable to freshwater and saltwater, spending parts of their lives in both. 137 species of animals depend on salmon for food. Everything from wolves to bears prey on them.

Sometimes I feel like a salmon…

…A salmon swimming upstream, going against the current. Trying to stay all pure (not like the farmed salmon that aren’t so good for you to eat). Feeling like I’m getting preyed upon by a ferocious world. Hoping that I "feed" others with something that's good. Trying to be all bright and beautiful in a sea of grey and pessimism.

Today I was having trouble being where I wanted to be mentally. That’s not a problem I usually have because in “Alyssa Land” things are usually all rosy (or salmon-colored!), and good.

But today, not so much.

Maybe it’s that I haven’t really seen the sun for weeks. Maybe it’s that I need to deep-clean my house & I just don’t wanna. Maybe it’s those darn “holiday pounds” that I can’t shake (the cookies seemed worth it at the time). Maybe it’s that winter gray just isn’t my color. Or maybe it’s that lately I’ve had an extra dose of “these people just don’t get me”.

Whatever the reason I am fully in my January Funk.

It happens every year…39 years in a row now, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But on top of the January Funk, today I felt a little misunderstood. And as I looked around, I said to myself, “I feel like a salmon swimming up-stream!” Then I had to chuckle to myself… Of course I feel like that!

Maybe God even wants me to feel that way: constantly going against the current. Constantly feeling not-of-this-world, like I don’t belong. While I try to be adaptable, like a good salmon would be, I frequently feel misplaced…like I have migrated away into unknown waters, fighting to be a little piece of God’s light in a world so far away from Him that I’m not surely if he’s still recognizable.

In a strange way I think God calls us to be salmon, though it is hard to be constantly swimming against the current of a world running from Him, a world running to the things of popular culture and celebrity gossip and scandal. Sometimes that feels really lonely.

I think He calls us to be pure, like a salmon born and bred in God-made oceans and streams…away from the contamination of a salmon farm. Sometimes that feels really hard.

I think He calls us to swim fast, trying at every turn to escape the earthly things that prey on us. To navigate those hard moments by the instincts that He placed in us, to act on what we always knew was the right thing anyway. Sometimes that is really isolating.

But doing the things that make us feel lonely, that are hard, that isolate us from popular culture are sacrifices that are pleasing to God. Sacrifices made in His name bring joy to the very heart of God.

He wants us to be the salmon, and the only influences that pierce our hearts, His.

Romans 12:1-3: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

My prayer for you, and for myself, is that we will continue to swim upstream, no matter how hard, in an attempt to please our Father in Heaven.

My prayer is that we will all find ourselves navigating this life with other believers, so that the lonely and isolated moments feel few and far between.

And my prayer is that we will never look at another plate of salmon in quite the same way, but that we’ll use it as a reminder that we need to forever nourish the body, mind, and soul with good things, pure things, healthful things, things that prepare us for an eternity in heaven.

So keep swimmin’ upstream, girls! I’ll be right there with you!

Question: When was the last time you felt like you were swimming upstream? Why? What was the result?