We stopped at Bonneville Dam, one of several dams that span the Columbia River on our way home from our coast trip. The dam is an obstacle to fish driven by instinct to swim upstream to spawn so man has built fish ladders to give the fish a way around the dam. Underwater viewing windows provided us a unique look at the tough journey. The salmon run is largely over but I saw large steelhead trout and a huge sturgeon fighting their way up. The ladder is a series of narrow steps which cause a fast-moving “waterfall” at the side of the dam. The weary and weakened fish (most species don’t eat during the journey) face an arduous uphill journey against a strong downhill current.
As I watched the fish struggle against the current, I empathized with them. Life as a human is also an uphill battle and in my experience, it gets harder as we go. I have often pondered how life unfolds and why it only gets harder. I have learned that, in his mercy, Heavenly Father brings us step by step to a higher place- closer to and more like Him. Once we have faced and survived a crisis or difficult condition, we are wiser and stronger leaving us more able to face the next more difficult situation. Aging leaves me physically weaker but spiritually, mentally and emotionally stronger and with more of an eternal perspective. Things that hit hard and knocked me down as a youth don’t phase me any longer, not because the nature of the challenge has changed but because I have changed (and hopefully for the better.) I am still on the upward climb and, mercifully, the rocks and crevasses ahead are not within view. I don't know what is ahead but I expect it to be harder than what lays behind. This is as it should be and I am not dismayed but pray only for strength to finish. As Paul believed, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)
Mortal life is a great school, a training ground where we learn through our own experience as well as through observing the experiences of others, and we work through it as from elementary school to high school to the university, all the while building on the foundation that was provided in the previous days. If in the deepest desires of our hearts we seek to know God and return to his presence, our experiences will teach us the path. “I the Lord search he heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:10) Life is a growing, learning, refining experience where as we learn of and submit to the ways of God, our rough edges are polished and through the refiner’s fire the dross is in us is separated and removed. “The fining pot is for silver, and furnace or gold: but the Lord tried the hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3) There is Godly help for all that befalls us in life, even the daily task of swimming upstream and when we finish this life, we will have been shaped and refined us to reveal our true nature and capacity.
“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10)
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