I’ve been thinking about salmon recently.
Not just the smoked salmon bagels and blinis which grace us with their festive visitations each December, although I’d be lying if I said I hadn't partaken and enjoyed these offerings as much as the next person over the holidays. But the kind on my mind have been the large, living, upstream-swimming variety.
It’s a well-worn metaphor for the Christian life, the idea of channelling our inner salmon and going against the flow, fighting the tide of the prevailing culture and choosing to live differently. This, I believe, is laid out in the Bible quite clearly in a number of different passages: we are to set our minds ‘on things above, not on things on the earth’ (Col 3:2). We are called to stand out, to be ‘salt and light’ (Matt 5:13), or as I heard someone else define that phrase, ‘distinct and set apart’. Paul literally urges us ‘do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom 12:2). Jesus says that his followers are ‘not of this world’, just as he and his kingdom are not of this world (John 17:16).
I think most Christians are agreed on this in principle. We know we are called to live differently, and don’t we long for others to see something radically different about our lives, something that points past us to a revelation of the glorious gospel? But it can be trickier knowing exactly how we put this call in to practice in our daily lives. Naturally, this won’t look exactly the same for everyone. There are many factors at play: our own personal circumstances and disposition, our particular culture, our geographical location, for example, all shape how we respond to this call to distinct living. It’s also important for us to remember that we aren’t meant to just hole up somewhere and live in isolation; Jesus says more than once that he is sending his followers out in to the world to share the good news. We should be evident in, interceding for and influencing our culture, knowing all the while that heaven is our real home and we are here as sojourners (1 Peter 2). We are to be counter-cultural, not to cut ourselves off from our culture all together.
Convenience and Currents
It’s not always easy knowing how to strike this balance, being ‘in the world but not of the world’, and I’ve been thinking recently about some of the dangers we may fall into in the process. For example, the danger of choosing convenience over costly discipleship. Choosing to go with the cultural flow rather than stand out awkwardly. Playing the ‘in the world’ card a little too quickly to justify our decisions, so that we don’t really have to change a lot about our lifestyle and can carry on much as we were before. I know for myself I’m far more likely to lean in this direction, rather than being too zealous in my pursuit of counter-cultural living; at the time of writing no one has yet accused me of being too generous with my money and possessions, or being radically hospitable, or overly sacrificial with my time and love.
But another danger, perhaps more subtle and serious, is to think that our culture doesn’t have a current. The writer of Hebrews knew well that no culture is a motionless body of water in which we can simply stay still. Among the many warnings in Hebrews is one to ‘pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away’ (Heb 2:1). He knew that culture is a living thing; it has dynamism, it is perpetually pushing and pulling in a certain direction. Sometimes this cultural current is as obvious as being bowled over backwards by a huge wave, but more often it is so subtle we don’t notice the ways it is moving us or changing us, smoothing us like stones in a river into a different shape altogether. The problem with drifting is that we don’t realise it’s happening. Unless we ‘pay careful attention’, we can’t tell how much we’ve moved until we look up and see how far we are from our starting point. It’s not enough to stay still and hope for the best: even if we aren't actively swimming with the current, we are going to be moved by it unless we’re actively swimming against it.
The current of a culture is essentially the outworking of the worldview, or the philosophy, which is underpinning it. And, just as a current doesn’t stop and start in a stream but flows through it with some degree of consistency, the prevailing worldview will effect all areas of a culture, including its institutions and establishments. This is where schools come in. Before I say any more, let me reiterate an important point I’ve made in earlier posts: the purpose of my Substack is not to lambast the state education system. Far from it. My intention is for this to be a place to celebrate and share our own home education experience in all its unfiltered glory. A friend said recently “I’m not anti-school, I’m just really pro-homeschool”, and that puts into words perfectly the sentiment I hope I convey in these posts. But, if we are to talk of salmon, and to talk of swimming upstream and against the flow, surely it is prudent to spend a moment to consider the stream itself. To take a look at the current against which we are swimming and be honest about it, even if it is uncomfortable and even unpopular to do so.
If God is good (which I believe he is) and if he is holding all things together (which the Bible says he is), then surely much of his goodness will be evident in many areas of his world. This extends to schools! There are many ways a state school can reflect God’s goodness. In addition, I believe every person in every school has been made in the image of God; they carry his goodness in their very being! That means schools are places brimming with beautiful potential. And yet there is still a current, an underpinning worldview which is fundamentally different from, if not actively opposed to, the Biblical worldview. Sometimes its movements might be very small, maybe even harmless; a nudge here and there. I don’t think it is one tidal wave after another of opposition to the gospel in the average school. But, when I talk to Christian friends who are either teachers themselves or parents of children in the school system, it sometimes seems like a case of continually picking your battles. Which parts of the school experience are they comfortable with, and which parts are non-negotiable. Gauging when to keep quiet about something they aren’t completely on board with, and when to kick up a fuss. When to concede ground, and when to try and claim it back. How to heed those words from Hebrews to pay the most careful attention so that they [or their kids] do not drift away in the current. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and I know countless parents and teachers are doing this every day.
I just think it sounds really hard.
Maybe I sound a bit too Eeyore about it. After all, I went to a state school and I don’t think it was that bad. So did virtually all of my present and former peers. But I think we have to be honest about the way schools are changing. Where there was previously an apathy to the gospel in earlier decades, there is a growing antagonism. An education officer we spoke to last year told us that he had been heavily outvoted, in discussions about the post of headteacher in a church school, when he suggested that a requirement of this role should be that the person was a practicing Christian. In a church school! The current is getting stronger, and swimming against it is getting harder.
Salmon, Sheep and Snakes
To circle back to the salmon. Did you know that salmon don’t swim upstream until near the end of their life? A young salmon wouldn’t manage the journey, but when they are mature and developed, they can withstand the stronger currents. Not only are they able to resist being swept away by it, but they can actively swim against it. Timing and discernment matter. How and when we go upstream is important.
At the end of his ministry, Jesus says to his followers: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Pretty unanimously, various commentaries and resources about this verse draw similar conclusions:
1) Jesus clearly sends his followers to be in the world, facing opposition, not hiding away from it. Therefore as Christians, we shouldn’t be trying to keep our heads down and slip by unnoticed, cloistered away from the world. We should be present in and engaging with our culture, and expecting it to be difficult.
2) Jesus gives guidance for how to combat this opposition. Rather than unnecessarily paraphrase these commentaries, let me share the words of John Piper which I found to be very helpful:
“So, yes, go among wolves and be vulnerable as you preach the gospel, but when they lunge at you, step aside. When they open their mouths, don’t jump in. And not only that, be as innocent as doves. That is, don’t give them any legitimate reason to accuse you of injustice or immorality. Keep your reputation as clean as you can.
So both the snake-intelligence and the dove-innocence are both designed to keep the sheep out of trouble. Jesus does not mean for us to get ourselves into as much difficulty as possible. He means: Risk your lives as vulnerable, non-combative, sheep-like, courageous witnesses, but try to find ways to give your witness in a way that does not bring down unnecessary persecution.”1
Matthew Henry has an excellent commentary on this which can be found in my footnotes, where he writes “it is the will of Christ that his people and ministers, being so much exposed to troubles in this world, as they usually are, should not needlessly expose themselves, but use all fair and lawful means for their own preservation.”2
Others write a similar message: in essence, we will face plenty of ‘wolves’ and hardship as it is, and we should avoid additional unnecessary opposition. There are no prizes for adding more obstacles to our route than God himself is giving us to swim against. But,
3) Jesus has a purpose in sending us out thus. The Good Shepherd does not send his sheep out among wolves, into danger, for no reason. What does he want us to do? To make disciples! To preach the good news! A helpful commentary says: “Jesus tells His followers to exercise whatever wise shrewdness they can to avoid conflict and danger, without losing the dove-like innocence that will allow them to continue to proclaim the truth without fear.”3 If we want to be effective in sharing the gospel, it is actually wise to avoid those snares which can be avoided, in order that we might not be sidetracked from what he is sending us out to do.
I’m not saying we should avoid the current altogether. We should be in it, swimming against it, showing that it’s possible to live differently and taking as many people with us as we can on our journey home! But we should be wise about how and when we do that as adults, and about what we expect of our kids. We must be mindful of assuming they will survive the current, if they haven’t learnt to swim yet.
Home educating isn’t simply a case of self-preservation, or trying to protect children from a ‘big bad world’. We love the world; it is God’s world and we want to see his truth, beauty and goodness permeating every aspect of it. But we want to give our children more time to enjoy the freedom and adventure of childhood, and to have more time with them ourselves to teach them and guide them. To be the ones showing them how to swim. Then, hopefully, when the time comes for these little salmon of ours to go upstream, they will be prepared for the journey.
