A little green squiggle had appeared on the creek’s bubbling surface and refused to be carried downstream.

A stubborn inchworm was holding its own against the flow. That it had such strength in its tiny body was a marvel. It stood up as if to make a stride with its length, leaving a wake as the water trailed around it, holding steady in the swiftly moving water.

All it could do was to hold up, inchworm-style, its tiny lower tip somehow anchored in the turbulent creek, while its fragile body remained poised, long and elegant, like a dancer.

When Oldest Daughter could stand it no longer, she rescued the inchworm, now named Nugget, and placed it on the damp but solid shoreline. It immediately resumed normal inchworm locomotion, rising up and forward, bringing its back to meet its front, again and again, going on its merry way.

On land, it was getting somewhere.

In the water, it wasn’t going anywhere, but hanging on was enough.

The path of least resistance would have meant relocation, injury, or death. The instinct to turn, to rise up, and to fight meant life.

The saying “only dead fish go with the flow” is usually correct.

How often we take the easy way out, when we know better. How hard it is to make the right choices, day in and day out.

How tired we can become, put out with living in a world that seems to be ruled by ego, disorder, and lies.

But fighting against it all, just as the inchworm did with the stream, is worth it.

Battle your problems. Refuse to follow unhealthy and ungodly trends. Hold strong against temptation. Don’t give in to your worries or obsessions.

Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:12 GNT

Let’s not allow the things of the world and of ourselves to sweep us away to a place of no return.

Be like the inchworm, digging in with all your might against the grain, fighting until you make it through.

Or until Someone else comes along and gives you a hand, setting things right again.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV