Skip to main content

December in the city: reflecting on light.

The cold had me cycling quickly through the city this evening coming back from a lovely meeting with a dear friend at the “Brecht café” (interestingly named after the German author “Bertolt Brecht” whose literature I was studying and analyzing when I did German in school, many many years ago).  Yet, even though I was trying to get inside as quickly as possible, I still took in the many amazing light features popping up around the city in preparation for the festival of lights. It is beautiful. Massive chandeliers made up of many little lights along the wide roads, and different creative uses of lights on buildings, really makes the city illuminated (literally). As I crossed the Dam square, the Christmas tree was also up and alight.

I started thinking about the film I watched in the cinema today, “The Butler”. It was a great film, not really about light per se, more about USA and their racial history, but a quote at the start of the film stood out to me and remains with me. Martin Luther King once said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.” The Bible talks about light coming into darkness, and the darkness not overcoming it. And so I was starting to think about that, and how it is so easy to get discouraged by all the darkness that seems to be taking over the earth. All the bad things that are happening, and not even counting the natural disasters, but the things  done by people to other people. And yet, in the midst of seeing such deep darkness, there is hope, and the hope is in the Light who is Jesus. And so there is a choice- I can either let darkness overwhelm me or I can choose to walk gazing on Jesus who is the light that can drive out darkness.

And then I was thinking about darkness not so much with regards to evil, but related to hard times in life; to the “the valleys of the shadow of death” times .  And I was reminded by an email I got today about how Job (to say his life was hard is an understatement) declared: “By His light I walked through darkness!”

I want to hold on to this revelation of the power of Light to drive out not only the darkness  in the world, but also lead me through dark times in my own life. And as I do, I desire to bring this same  hope to those who can’t see it yet in their lives and situations.

Popular posts from this blog

It’s been one week.

A week ago we were sitting at work talking about how quickly the Corona situation was escalating. News of closed gyms and limited gatherings were there, and we were wondering what now. Only the day before we’d been open, and while taking the hygiene precautions and reminding each other to not hug or shake hands, there was a sense of support in each other, and normality was still there. Then suddenly it all changed. From being a crisis in China and Asia, then Italy, it had well and truly arrived in Norway. Friday morning we sat in our staff meeting. News of the closing of all schools and kindergartens for two weeks had come the evening before. We sat there with so many questions and few answers. The one thing we knew for sure was that this was a time to be available and present. A time to be proactive, and to make sure our people knew that we were there even if we weren’t open. That day we made many phone calls and sent messages and emails. Some were worried and needed reassurance,...
Read more

At a crossroads yet again.

This evening feelings of weariness flood my soul. Weary of not knowing. Weary of choosing to trust. Weary of waiting. Weary of walking yet not knowing what I am walking in or towards. Weary of figuring out life on my own. This past month the reality of crossroads in life has hit me yet again. I knew it was coming, but suddenly it was there and I just had to go with it. There’s not much more I can do...except waiting and trusting and choosing. Choosing to let God be the One who guides and fights and prepares the path before me. My crossroads is “do I stay or do I go”? From Kansas City and IHOP-KC. In October I’ll have been here two years, which feels like 5 years and at the same time 6 months. In December I go home for Christmas. It’ll have been a year since last time and I’ll be seeing my niece who’ll be 3 instead of 2 years old, and my little nephew who will be 1 year already, and I’ll get to meet little Julie who is only three weeks old as I write this. She’ll be 4 months when I meet...
Read more

Preparing for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the 17th of May. But for any Norwegian, this particular date isn't like any other date in the year, it's the 4th of July of Norway. And this year I am actually here. However, some preparations had to be done to get ready for tomorrow. One was getting my national costume down from the loft. I got it a few days ago and tried it on. It's a wee bit tight, but I think it'll be fine. This evening I ironed (or rather started ironing) the blouse which is hand embroydered and made of linnen (so those of you who have a clue about fabrics, know that linnen is the opposite of no-crease material). And the second part of the preparation was polishing the silver. I tried the "foil-in-hot-water-with-salt" method, but I don't think it worked too well. I did a bit of polishing with toothpaste after that and it looks alright. At the end of the day I'm the only one who will notice the level of polishedness of my silver. I have also got my camera on charging re...
Read more