At missionere pingviner - To serve amongst penguins

At flytte til et andet land er en lang proces, der ikke ender, når billederne er hængt op på væggen.

For nylig var jeg i Norge for at undervise, og det var så hyggeligt og sjovt at være sammen med mine venner der, at da jeg kom tilbage til Schweiz, gik jeg igennem endnu en af de her bølgedale, som der kommer en del af: "Hvorfor er jeg her?", "hvordan kan Gud bede mig om at rejse væk fra alt, jeg elsker", "finder jeg nogensinde dybe venskaber her?" osv.

Efter mange tanker, nåede jeg frem til samme konklusion som altid: Om så Gud bad mig om at rejse til Sydpolen for at missionere blandt pingviner, så vil jeg gøre det (at få opbakning til det, vil nok blive en helt anden sag...) For Gud har gjort så meget for os, at vi for altid står i taknemmelighedsgæld til ham. Tænk bare på hans kærlighed og frelse! Så intet - jeg gentager INTET - offer er for stort.

Men nu kommer det fede, som vist egentlig ofte sker, når jeg er nået frem til den konklusion: Om natten vågnede jeg ved, at et bibelvers lød klokkeklart for mit indre øre. (Og det er ikke engang et, som jeg kender særlig godt). Det handlede om, hvordan Gud er den perfekte far. Og det var som om, at Gud talte til mig gennem dette ved at sige: "Ja, du skylder mig alt, men jeg er din himmelske far, og dit velbefindende ligger mig stærkt på sinde. Det hele bliver ikke kun ved med at være et offer. Det skal nok blive sjovt igen. Før eller siden."

Moving to another country is a long proces that doesn't stop when the pictures are up on the wall.

Recently I was in Norway to teach and I had such a good time with my friends there, that coming home was a bit of a cold bucket of water in the face and made me go through another of the multiple phases that goes like this: "Why am I here?", how can God ask me to move away from everything I love?", "will I ever find deep friendships here?" etc.

After a lot of thoughts I reached the same conclusion as always: Even if God asked me to move to the South Pole to serve amongst penguins then I would do it (to gather support for that might be another issue...) For God has done so much for us that we for ever is in depth to him. Just think about his love and his salvation. So no - I repeat NO - sacrifice is too big to make.

But here is the cool thing which actually happends often after I have reached this conclusion: At night I woke up with a Bible verse quoted so clearly in my mind (and it is not even one of those I know by heart). The verse was about how God is a perfect father. And through that verse it was as if God was speaking to me, saying, "Yes, you owe me everything but I am your Heavenly father so your well-being is very much my concern. It will not all continue to be a sacrifice. It will be fun again some time. Sooner or later."