Posts filed under 'Denmark'
Sitting this Saturday evening just past sunset, I though I would take the opportunity to reflect on the day.
Went to bed a bit late last night after having been to Laura’s ‘studenterfest’ (a party you throw when you’ve graduated from high school), but was fortunate enough to be able to sleep late today. Had the opportunity to see Bobby’s (our Café church minister) 1-minute Facebook video-intro to his sermon today on the topic of ‘real rest’.
So I got a little over eight hours of sleep before I was awoken by a phone call from a good friend, whom I was very glad to hear from, so this made a perfect start of the day. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to reflect a little, write in my journal, and read through Paul’s letter to Titus, which was the place to which I had come in the Scriptures, this morning. Especially Titus 3:9 made me pause a little: “But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.” (NRSV)
Soon after, I was out running. It was nice to feel that I’m getting a bit in shape, so I can actually run for most of the 25 minutes – on the route that used to take 30 – without having to stop for air. To add to the excitement, I ran into one of my cat friends 
I think I’ve met her before – I think it was a her – this black-brownish cat who looked very happy to see me in the rain, and came running towards me from the distance. So I took a few minutes to say hi and went on running. When I settle down sometime, I would definitely like a cat.
Afterwards, I made myself a nice brunch; I could post pictures, but you can just look down a couple of posts from last Saturday’s brunch to the picture of the baguettes with tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil, salt and pepper, to see what I had This was enjoyed with freshly squeezed – that is, before they put it onto a box in the supermarket, but at least it was not diluted concentrate – orange juice and further conversation with the before-mentioned good friend.
After a tiny bit of reflection, I turned to Isaiah 58 and read most of it before walking out the door. It’s one of my favorite passages. I was out the door quite early, and thought I might just get out of the Metro one station early (Nørreport, that is), and walk to church along the lakes of central Copenhagen. While going to church, I had a very relaxed feeling. Just feeling good. I got out of the train at Kongens Nytorv, but got back onto the train right away, as I had the feeling I should go to Nørreport instead. So, I did. As I got out from the station and up to street-level, I wanted to cross over to one side of the street I was to walk up, but there was a red light to my left. Strangely, there was still 5 seconds of green light to my right. So, I went that way (it made no difference to my route, as it only determined I was walking upwards on the left side of the street, instead of the right). When I had crossed the footpath over the street to the right, I saw a woman sitting, holding out a cup, needing money. I felt impressed to give her some money, so I did. And besides, it was very fitting with the passage I’d read before going out the door. It all fit so well together, I couldn’t help but wonder if God had sent me past her today, for her benefit as well as for mine (the amount I gave her couldn’t have made a huge difference, but I hope it got her on the way to meeting just a small amount of her real material needs). I remembered one of my teachers at Newbold who said something like this in a tutorial session: “The main theme of the Old Testament is not even God’s love. It is His justice. He is the God who cares about the underdog. Who provides justice for those who have been mistreated.”
The topic of Bobby’s sermon today was ‘real rest’, taking his point of origin in 1 Kings 1:1-4. Just a couple of highlights (as I remember them):
‘You can’t explain about rest unless you’ve experienced it’
‘These servants knew that the King needed help. Needed help to do what he couldn’t do, to get warm.’
‘Why does it say that David did not have sex with her? Remember the story in 2 Samuel? This shows us that David has grown.’
‘If there is no warmth in your thinking, God isn’t there’
‘Real rest is getting close to God’
(and there was another, brilliant, statement, but I just can’t remember it, which is driving me just a tiny bit crazy. No, not really, but still 
)
I think one of the main things I brought along is that the things we cannot do for ourselves, God can help us with. And that God can provide real rest for us. That He is the one who will provide it. And that nothing but God will provide us with real rest. None of the shorter-term things that we think will make us happy. But it’s hard to convey; these are just fragments. I hope they will get the recording of the sermons sorted soon, so they can be podcast (now also as a verb ).
The worship after the sermon in particular, was awesome, in the truest sense of the word. Just a couple of quite quiet songs, not intimidating in any way, and with quite a few a cappella-sections, God felt very present.
Afterwards, I went out with 4 friends and had a very nice meal at Jensens Bøfhus. Food, as always, was great. And the fact that the service wasn’t up to par was okay, since it provided us with free desserts
Sitting back in the apartment of the friend who’s been nice enough to have me staying for the summer, but who isn’t here at the moment, I am left with the feeling that today, I have experienced real rest. It’s not something tangible, but it’s still something I know I’ve experienced, and something I certainly know I would not be able to provide myself with these days. And I just want to acknowledge God for this.
juni 28th, 2008
The book in the picture is usually called ‘den blÃ¥ sangbog’ and is a classic within the Adventist Church in Denmark. It’s good to see it’s still being put to use :p
juni 22nd, 2008
Today, I attended a baptism at the home church of my childhood. It was a very moving service – come to think of it, I think all services should be baptismal services; it tends to provide the right focus that really should be present at any divine service, but for some reason is not always there.
For me, it was a personal experience as well. Seldom has it been that hard to sing ‘all to Jesus I surrender’. But I did sing it, and it felt good. About 1/3 of the song’s durations, I think I had to keep quiet in order to manage the river of tears that was wanting to run uncontrollably down my cheeks. Now, I just feel like sleeping.
I don’t know why I have to experience hardship (or for that matter why we all do), or, maybe I have some idea, but regardless, I believe God has a plan for me, plans for something better. The hardest part is probably patience while He does His stuff.
“Du kaldte mig, o Jesus,
nu kommer jeg til dig.
Jeg slipper alt mit eget,
jeg overgiver mig”
(Danish baptismal hymn from memory)
P.S. If the timestamp is confusing, I wrote some on this yesterday and some today :p
juni 8th, 2008
Getting out of the metro today, while taking the escalator up to the surface, I got a glimpse of a little goodbye scene. A woman was smiling, crying, waving at her family; four persons standing outside by a pram and waving back.
I instantly got a flashback to the opening scene of ‘Love Actually’:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion love actually is all around.”
maj 25th, 2008
(yupp, it’s a Danish song)
I Danmark er jeg født, dér har jeg hjemme,
der har jeg rod, derfra min verden går.
Du danske sprog, du er min moders stemme,
så sødt velsignet du mit hjerte når.
Du danske, friske strand,
hvor oldtids kæmpegrave
stå mellem æblegård og humlehave.
Dig elsker jeg! – Dig elsker jeg!
Danmark, mit fædreland!
- H.C. Andersen
april 25th, 2008
The other day, as I was running down the ever-hurried steps to the Metro of Copenhagen. It was raining, so I had my umbrella out. (In some circles, I have been known as Jonas with the umbrella, but that’s a whole other story)
It’s a very nice Samsonite umbrella that I got for my birthday not so long ago, from my younger brother, and, might I add, it is somewhat expensive as well – thank’s Stian Should the following story does not highlight it, I am very fond of this umbrella.
Anyways, as I was hurrying down the stairs, my eyes caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man just standing there, smoking, as if waiting for the rain to stop. I don’t know why I felt this way, but for a brief moment, I felt strongly that I should give him the umbrella. Thinking back, I don’t know if it was one of those moments where God speaks to you – it may very well have been – but I couldn’t shake the feeling off. Or rather, that was just what I did as I was spending the 7 seconds of time from my eye caught him, until I was past him and down the escalators.
The whole day, I could not stop thinking about the guy. What if I had just paused and said ‘you look like you could use an umbrella’? What would have happened? I don’t know, and what bothers me the most is that I will never find out. (it’s not like I’m loosing sleep over it, but still)
I told one of my friends about this – she shrugged and said ‘but then you wouldn’t have had an umbrella ‘. Which is true, but I could have just gotten another one. It would have been the equivalent of giving 200 DKK to a person in need.
Imagine if the guy was standing there, smoking, looking out to the rain, silently saying with a slight smile of disbelief: ‘God, if you’re there, give me an umbrella’. Or something less spectacular Point is, I will never know.
And what is more, I would like to be the kind of guy who would give his umbrella to someone in need of one. Who would live by the principle of Jesus in Luke 16.
“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’” (Luke 16:9-13)
I could have chosen to become the man who had no umbrella. Instead, I let someone else stay in that role.
( Hope I have not offended my brother too much with this post )
januar 4th, 2008
The list of the most read news-pieces this week, on the website of a quite respectable Danish newspaper:
- Woman set fire on ex-husbands penis.
- Women love their breasts.
- Female teacher convicted of sexual crime risk 15 years in jail.
- Why does hangovers make you want sex?
- Miss France penalized for provoking photos.
Note that this is a mainstream newspaper, having many news-items about politics, sports, culture, education, science and so on. Thus, the list above must tell us something about the mind of the mainstream reader.
What makes the world go round in this day and age? I dare say it’s not money.
januar 4th, 2008
So today, I ran into Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, well-know politician and former prime minister of Denmark.
I had just visited my former boss at my old school, said hi to a few former colleagues, and was heading for the elevator.
Suddenly, I got the feeling the guy standing next to the elevator looked somewhat familiar, and it didn’t take me long to remember who he was. I pushed the elevator-button, and pretended not to have noticed – after all, I would be annoyed if everybody wanted to say hello just because they knew who I was. Then the following very meaningful conversation happened:
Poul Nyrup: ‘Excuse me, do you know where political sciences are?’
*Jonas trying to gather his thoughts after actually been addressed by a person you most often see on TV*
Poul Nyrup quite quickly before I had a chance to say anything: ‘Oh, you probably don’t know that’ (it doesn’t translate that well, but was a very empathetic statement to the fact that I probably didn’t know)
Jonas coming back with an answer: ‘Oh, you just go down through the other side [*pointing towards the wall, thinking through it, but probably not communicating it that well*] and across the square and it should be right there. It’s been a while since I was here…’
*A very helpful secretary now comes running (literally) out of her office 20 meters away to offer her assistance and gestures Poul Nyrup and his companion into her office, as she has a window overlooking the building in question.*
Poul Nyrup: ‘Thank you very much. Thank you.’
And gone he was. But, even with my stuttering attempt at explaining the way to political sciences, I did meet and speak with the former Danish prime minister – how cool is that?
Somehow, I keep running into key (or former key) political figures in Denmark this week
oktober 30th, 2007
Various impressions from the last couple of days wandering aimlessly in the streets of Copenhagen:
Man sitting on the street with a cross-shaped piece of jewelry around his neck, with a nearly empty bowl, and a sign saying: ‘I’m hungry’. I’ve seen him before, and every time I come to think along the lines of Isaiah 58:5-8 and Matthew 25:31-46.
Quite a few people going around with professionally looking folders asking the same question: ‘Would you like to put a stop to torture?’ What do you answer to something like that? ‘No, I don’t want to put a stop to torture’ doesn’t seem quite right. They didn’t ask me though – someone close by went with the answer ‘I don’t have time to do that right now’.
While waiting for a friend, I noticed some prominent people from Dansk Folkeparti standing right beside me arguing their (in my view doubtful) case, probably in response to the recently announced government election. The group featured Kristian Thulesen Dahl, Peter Skaarup, Jesper Langballe, and a woman I didn’t know and still haven’t been able to figure out who is. Of course it would be her – amongst the other well-known people there – who would ask me if I wanted one of their folders. I smiled and said ‘no thanks’. She looked flustered and asked me if I wanted an apple. Again, I smiled and said ‘no thanks’ – this made her look even more flustered (she may have asked again if I was sure – I don’t quite remember). It was only later I came to think of some other stories involving an apple, and suddenly realized why I was reluctant to receive fruit from just that political party. (no offense to the very kind woman, whoever she was)
oktober 24th, 2007
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