Come To The Dark Side

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

~ 1 Peter 4:12-13

 

I remember seeing a documentary on salmon when I was in grade school (and we had a substitute teacher with no lesson plan).  The thing that struck me about salmon is that when it is time to spawn, they head upstream against the current, fighting to overcome the waterfalls, the bears, the fishermen, and all sorts of challenges just so they can spawn. This made me wonder, would it not have been much simpler to just find some shallow pool along the way to spawn?

 

I asked my Grampa, who was an avid fisherman, why the salmon endured all that just to spawn.  Honestly, I was expecting some of his sage wisdom like "because they are stupid" or "Bears and fishermen have to eat."  Instead, his answer made me thing even more because he said, "They do it to teach us."  I didn't understand that answer no matter how much I pondered it.  It wasn't until I was in college that the simplicity of his wisdom hit me like a speed train.  During chapel one Tuesday, the speaker said "Let's face facts, if sin wasn't easy and fun our enemy would be out of a job.  If you aren't bumping into the enemy, you are walking with the enemy."

 

This made everything pretty clear for me.  I shouldn't be surprised when I am tempted to do wrong because the temptation comes in the fact that doing wrong is easy, popular, and fun.  Doing what is right is often difficult because you are going against the popular opinion, and because it is unpopular doing what is right is not fun.  BUT doing the right thing in spite of popular opinion and personal discomfort is what God has called us to do.  God calls us to be different than the world.  God calls us to be weird like that.  

 

So......HI, My name is Paul and I rather like being weird.  Don't always get it right, but I do try and do try to learn. How about you?