There are seasons when following God feels like swimming upstream.

Everything around you seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The current is strong. You are tired. And you begin to wonder why you are fighting so hard against something that would be so much easier to simply surrender to.

I found myself there one day,

I was frustrated. I was hurting. Life had brought circumstances I didn’t understand and certainly wouldn’t have chosen.

And as I prayed, I had this thought:

I feel like a salmon swimming upstream pointlessly, only to meet my death in the end.

Not exactly an inspiring spiritual revelation.

I was tired of fighting the current.

I thought about how easy it would be to stop swimming. To turn around. Let the water carry me. Stop resisting. Stop fighting so hard to live differently, respond differently, forgive differently, believe differently.

Just coast downstream.

And then God brought something to mind.

Why does the salmon swim upstream in the first place?

I sat down and began to search this out.

The answer changed the picture.

The salmon isn’t making that brutal journey simply for itself.

It swims upstream to reproduce—to preserve the next generation.

Maybe the Journey Isn’t Only About Us

We live in a culture with a powerful current.

It tells us what deserves our attention, what should define us, what success looks like, what we should fear, what we should pursue, and even how we should respond when someone hurts us.

Following Christ will sometimes mean swimming directly against that current.

Forgive when resentment would be easier.
Give when keeping would be easier.
Tell the truth when compromise would be easier.
Speak truth in love to someone even if they may be hurt or hurt you.
Choose humility when pride would be easier.
Remain faithful when walking away would be easier.
Trust God when everything we can see gives us reason to be afraid.

We become exhausted because we keep evaluating the journey by how difficult the water feels.

But Scripture tells us to look somewhere else.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:16–18

We do not lose heart.

Not because the current isn’t strong.
Not because swimming upstream doesn’t hurt.
Not because following God guarantees an easier life.

We don’t lose heart because we know where to fix our eyes.

Stop Watching the Water

I think sometimes I spend too much time looking at the water.

The circumstances.
The resistance.
The people seemingly floating effortlessly in the opposite direction.
The things I have lost.
The prayers that haven’t been answered the way I expected.
The exhaustion of trying to remain faithful when drifting would be so much easier.

Those are the things I can see.

Paul tells us to fix our eyes on what we cannot.

Because what I can see is temporary.

What God is doing is eternal.

That doesn’t mean the pain isn’t real.

It means the pain doesn’t get to tell the whole story.

We Weren’t Sent Upstream Unequipped

There is something else I don’t want to miss in the picture of the salmon.

The salmon isn’t simply surviving the journey upstream.

It was made for it.

The current is real. The obstacles are real. The journey costs something.

But the salmon has been equipped for the very journey that looks impossible from the outside.

What if we began looking at our own difficult seasons that way?

Sometimes I pray for God to change the current when perhaps God is using the current to change me.

Romans tells us:

“…suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
— Romans 5:3–4

Read that progression again.

Suffering • Perseverance • Character • Hope

The resistance is producing something.

We don’t merely survive the upstream seasons of our lives.

God uses them.

He forms something in us that could not have been formed by simply floating downstream.

And He hasn’t sent us into the current empty-handed.

Scripture tells us:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…”
— 2 Peter 1:3

He gives us His Word.

His Spirit.

His wisdom.

His strength.

His people.

And sometimes He gives us exactly enough strength for the next few feet of water—not a view of the entire river.

Maybe that is why faith matters so much.

Faith doesn’t require me to understand every bend in the river.

It asks me to trust the One who knows where it leads.

The Current Reveals Things

There is another reason this picture of the salmon matters to me.

Leadership.

We often think leadership is about influence—how many people listen, follow, or are impacted by what we do.

But before leadership is about influence, it is about identity and character.

Who am I when the current is moving against me?

Who am I when following God costs me something?

Who am I when compromising would make the journey easier?

Who am I when no one is watching?

The current reveals things.

It reveals what we actually believe.

It reveals where our identity is anchored.

It reveals whether our convictions are truly convictions—or simply preferences we hold when they are convenient.

And for those who lead, that matters.

Because eventually someone else will encounter the same current.

A grandchild.
A child.
A friend.
A coworker.
Someone we mentor.
Someone who simply watched how we responded when life became difficult.

Leadership isn’t always standing in front of a crowd.

Sometimes leadership is simply swimming upstream long enough for someone behind you to realize that upstream is possible.

Someone May Be Swimming Behind You

That is what I had forgotten when I wanted to stop swimming.

Faithfulness rarely ends with us.

Our children are watching.

Our grandchildren may someday live with the consequences of decisions we are making today.

People we may never meet can be affected by whether we chose comfort or obedience.

Maybe breaking a generational pattern feels like swimming upstream because it is.

Maybe choosing a different way for your family feels exhausting because currents that have flowed for generations do not reverse easily.

Maybe refusing to conform to the culture around you feels lonely because most currents carry crowds in the same direction.

But perhaps the question isn’t simply:

“Why is this so hard?”

Perhaps sometimes the better question is:

“What might God be preserving through my faithfulness?”

The salmon doesn’t see the generation that comes after it.

It simply continues the journey it was created to make.

And perhaps that is part of faith too.

We won’t always see what God is doing through our obedience.
We won’t always understand why the path is difficult.
We won’t always see the lives affected by the choices we make.

But we were never told to fix our eyes only on what we could see.

We were told the opposite.

Fix your eyes on the unseen.

The Current Is Forming Our Influence.

Leadership isn’t simply about where we eventually arrive.

It is about who we become on the way there.

Pressure reveals identity.
Resistance develops perseverance.
Perseverance forms character.
Character shapes our influence.

And faithful influence can reach generations we may never see.

We often want impact without going through the process of preparation.

We want God to use us greatly without realizing that some of the places where He prepares us will feel remarkably like swimming upstream.

Maybe the difficult season isn’t interrupting the purpose.

Maybe God is using it as part of the preparation for the purpose.

The leader who has learned to trust God in the current can help someone else when their water gets rough.

The parent who breaks a destructive pattern changes what is handed to the next generation.

The person who chooses integrity when compromise would be easier demonstrates that conviction is more than something we say.

The believer who keeps following Christ when circumstances make no sense shows someone else what faith actually looks like.

That is impact.

That is worth swimming upstream for.