But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9
When I was in high school, our youth group took a trip north to what is known as the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. It is a river that literally borders Canada and the United States. The campsites where we stayed for the week could only be accessed by canoe, so we loaded all our belongings into canoes and began the three or four hour journey to our temporary homes. During our stay, we took a day trip to the actual border of Canada. The day happened to be dreary, rainy, and windy, which only exaggerated the difficulty of paddling upstream to our destination. We were thrilled when we were finally able to step out of the canoes onto the firm ground called Canada. Had we gone the way the river was flowing because it was easier, we would have ended up in a far different place than the one we had intended to reach. Since we took the challenge of paddling upstream, we will forever have the memories of canoeing to Canada.
I must admit that going with the flow is always much easier. That is the reason many people just follow everyone else in their lives. The problem is, when you go with the flow, you end up in the same place everyone else does. If you want to be different, then you must go in a different direction, and that usually means fighting the current. Perhaps Albert Einstein put it best when he said, “The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.”
There are certainly many physical applications to fighting the current when it comes to things like excelling in sports or business, but I think it has tremendous application in our spiritual lives, as well. Many Christians never excel for God because they don’t want to be seen as “weird” or different. They want to be accepted, so they dress, look, and act like the rest of the world. The way to be really used of God is to fight the current and move in the opposite direction that most people are going. It will be a difficult task, but the destination will be well worth the struggle. You will find that God will greatly use you for fighting the current.
Read also: 1 Peter 2:9-12
Quote of the day: "If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will continue to get where you’ve always gotten.”