Long before The Chosen’s signature logo of fish swimming against the flow, I was choosing to swim against the flow that carried many with it…. The more I seek to live in step with Jesus, the more contrary to the world I find myself thinking and going.
From 2016 memories:
“Years ago I saw this cartoon. It struck me as funny and spoke to me somehow. I clipped it, put it in my journal and I have saved it all these years. The name “Cathy” was my own addition and I reproduced it in powerpoint in order to be able to use it in a presentation. I know that I sometimes swim against the stream, but when I do, it’s because it seems less hazardous to be alone and out of the “food chain”.”
In later years one does eventually get to the point that she no longer fears the consuming predators……. But simply finds peace in the solitude of being out of the mainstream flow.
What one encounters most frequently in the mainstream is the self-interest based ethic that is promoted and promulgated by our self- focused, self-celebrating culture. It has pummeled the individual and family boundaries and responsibilities designed to protect community in order to grant freedom of self-expression and freedom to each individual. That has made any rules- based ethic system intolerable to such individualists. What has been lost in the process is the values- based ethic that is the foundation supported by the boundaries of rules-based ethics systems. If the values are understood and shared by community members, the rules are then understood, too, for the purpose they serve and are viewed less onerously. When we cannot agree on the values that are shared and desirable, then there will be no tolerance for the rules, either. Some of us choose to strive for an even higher ethical system than that of self, rules, or cultural values. We choose one based on virtues that are defined by the highest, most noble and worthy standard we know. For Christ-followers those virtues are defined by the attributes, character, principles, prohibitions, proclamations, promises, and practices of God as revealed in his Word, by his Holy Spirit, among his people, and within the circumstances he allows as we pursue his will. Pursuing a virtuous life will automatically direct one away from the mainstream. One must swim deeper to find less turbulent waters to avoid the more permanent whitewater flow or be clearly stronger to maneuver against the force of the mainstream. (CBB 7/30/23)
