Time to think

Christmas has come and gone and now we are in those in between days. We are in between Christmas and New Years. Some Swedes work during these days and some don’t. Those that don’t work are often out returning gifts that don’t fit or buying those things they have wanted for a long time with Christmas money. Some are spending time with family and friends and some are just plain lonely waiting for the holidays to end so that their life can get back to normal.

I like to take these middle days and reflect. Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is soon upon us about to begin. What about the coming new year? What am I going to do differently? Am I actually going to do anything differently? I have thought of a few things but I am still thinking. I want to make sure I have counted the cost before I write down the things I want to change or do better this New Year.

“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?...” (Luke 14:28, NLT)

Things aren’t always the way they look!

For the last month and a half it feels like we have not seen the sun here in Stockholm. It has been pretty grey out there. The few hours of day light we have had have been covered with clouds. The Sun comes up around 9:00am and it sets around 3:00 in the afternoon. The days are short and the nights are long. So far no snow has fallen so things get pretty dark without the white snow to lighten things up.

But things aren’t always the way they look!

At this dark time of the year in Stockholm I have to keep reminding myself that the sun still shines even though we don’t see it. The other day I flew down to the city of Malmö and on the way down I was able to take this picture to prove my point. The sun was rising on the horizon over the clouds. It is still there, still shining brightly, even though we don’t always see it with our own eyes it is still there. So much of our life here on earth is this way too. We don’t always see the things that we know exist around us but we still believe that they exist and that they are there whether we see them or not. What I am saying is that in life here on earth we have to live by faith and not by sight. The Bible defines the word faith as, “…the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is evidence of things we cannot yet see. “(Hebrews 11:1)

I don’t see God with my eyes but the evidence of His existence is all around me. Sometimes this world we live in seems dark and cloudy. But faith tells us that God is light and He is still shinning.