Salmon Swimming Upstream to His Death

Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

My last name is Yuna and as a result from nearly birth people have called me, and my children for that matter, Tuna. But I am not a Tuna. Tuna’s are at the top of the food chain swimming in freedom, devouring whatever gets in their way with very few enemies or dangers outside of man. Me… I am a Salmon, always swimming upstream to my death.

I mean this facetiously of course, but sometimes that is sure what it feels like. Why is it that I can never take the easy way out? Why is it that I am compelled by some instinct to swim upstream to any or all of man’s systems? Why must I have these convictions to argue for what some moral compass (if that’s it at all) tells me is superior to a rule or other’s decision? Can it be that I just enjoy a fight?

That perhaps might have been the case in years gone by, but honestly I am tired of fighting. Even more I am tired of being drug into a fight in what on the surface looks willful, but spiritually is way beyond any will of my own.

Respect for my loved ones precludes me from sharing any deeper or more specific, but let me say that at present I am faced with a challenge. A challenge with a new defined timeline. With this challenge I have several options. Option one being roll over and play dead. Let the other party have their way and allow them to create upheaval in my life.

Option two would be to negotiate for more time and try to exit on more favorable terms.

Option three might be to seek protection from someone bigger than the current challenger.

Option four is to fight.

For me I have to seek God. What does He want me to do? It is in these prayer time on this subject that God continues and continues to reaffirm my direction. That direction is that Option 1, 2 & 3 are unnecessary and outside His will. That only leaves option four… and I have been there done that with some horrific results. But that Salmon in me is saying swim upstream again. Will the next jump land me in the mouth of the Grizzly? Sure is a possibility.

And so in the madness I call my dear friend and confidant Russell. In a lengthy conversation he says, ‘I’m not telling you to not fight, I am telling you that you need to fight in the spirit as well.’ He went on to say, ‘This is not a fight for you or your way of life, it is a fight that Christ might be glorified.’

And so the lesson begins… learning this thing evangelicals call “spiritual warfare.”

Stay tuned… J