Every one of us find ourselves in the middle of the current of this River of Life.
And it is naturally working to sweep us in a direction – pushing us along with a powerful force.
If we decide to tread water, we find that we don’t stay in the same place, we are still being pushed further downstream. Unless we decide to engage in the hard work of swimming against the current, we find that we are constantly being pushed along with so many others by the river. And it is certainly easier to “go with the flow” and let the water carry us along. But when we get to the destination that the river is carrying us to, will we be satisfied with where we end up?
We are familiar with the thought that our bodies are like machines, needing the right routine of food, rest and exercise if they are to run efficiently, and liable, if filled up with the wrong fuel (alcohol, drugs, poison) to lose their power of healthy functioning and ultimately to “seize up” entirely in physical death.
What we are, perhaps, slower to grasp is that God wishes us to think of our souls in a similar way. As rational persons, we were made to bear God’s moral image — that is, our souls were made to “run” on the practice of worship, law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service to God and our fellows. If we abandon these practices, not only do we incur guilt before God; we also progressively destroy our own souls. Conscience atrophies; the sense of shame dries up; one’s capacity for truthfulness, loyalty, and honesty is eaten away; one’s character disintegrates. One not only becomes desperately miserable; one is steadily being dehumanized. This is one aspect of spiritual death. Richard Baxter was right to formulate the alternatives as either: “A Saint — or a Brute”… that, ultimately, is the only choice, and everyone, sooner or later, consciously or unconsciously opts for one or the other.
(J. I. Packer in Knowing God)
We are each becoming either a Saint or a Brute due to our choice of swimming against the current or letting the natural course of things sweep us along. It is easier to not engage in that list of “law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service.” Those things require hard work. But I don’t want my character to disintegrate as I let my conscience atrophy and my sense of shame dry up while floating along with everyone else. It is easier to “go with the flow.” But Christ calls each of us to be a saint – one of His holy people set apart to live for Him. That will require us to swim against the current and to look different than most everyone else. But getting to the right destination at the end of this life is worth it.