A Groove, Slightly Transformed

Sunday was the first day of summer and the last day of the recent cold spell. Arna has one of the milder Norwegian climates but it's been freezing for weeks. I've even heard it said that this is the longest cold spell for sixty years although Terje did admit that he received this information from 'The Old People' so it's some way from being officially confirmed.

It has also been unusually dry over the last few weeks. So dry, in fact, that last Sunday we were a week away from a water shortage. I find this to be ridiculous. Ask Dave and Anna how much it rained when they were here in the autumn. Any place that breaks records for rainfall in November and then flirts with drought in March can only be regarded as careless in my opinion.

Anyway, it being so dry has meant that there has been a lot of dust in the air in Bergen. It comes from the metal-studded winter tyres that some drivers use on their cars churning up the road surface, creating a dust cloud that is visible from the top of the surrounding mountains. What annoyed me is that while the tyres are only neccesary for about half a dozen days every winter, the use of them in these dry periods gives certain people breathing problems. Why not take the bus six times a year? Or, if that's not possible, these drivers have to decide if they value their ease of travel and getting to work for six days higher than the lungs of someone else.

Drums, please! Wick-a-wick-a-wick-a-wick-a... Here it is...

In celebration of the first day of summer I listened almost exclusively to old-school hip hop on Sunday, most repeatedly the seminal Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. I feel that this action may have swung things weather-wise and as a result Arna is once again moderately cold and often raining. Hopefully spring will get its act together soon.

On Sunday evening I went to Betel, a church in Bergen to hear the gospel choir from Ansgar School of Theology. I was asked to welcome people on the door and my colleague in this task spent a large part of the time either pointing out the choice single girls in my age bracket or sharking for the ones in his. He divided the people we were welcoming in a very similar, unorthodox way. The concert itself was great fun and I especially enjoyed the times when the synthesizer and lead bass combined to create that Kanye sound, like the opening track on The College Dropout.

This week I finally finished the scout film of the trip to Finse. Technical problems had risen up at every turn, not only delaying the finished product but making the process a bit of a chore at times. Now that it's completed I have mixed feelings about the project. On the one hand I think it's a good home video (although spending so many hours working on it makes it hard to judge just how good it actually is) and I know it has a killer soundtrack. Moreover, the chances are that I have become Arna's first foreign film director. Oh, how I exude culture. On the other hand though, it is only a good home video. I find it hard to think of how much time I spent on something so trivial when there is far more important work to be done; I don't think I can justify it. Maybe God will use it open a door to send me as a missionary to Hollywood but at the moment I don't think that's His plan.

I was asked by one of my youth recently about what I'm going to do after the summer. They said that they knew that I wanted to do what God wanted, but wanted to know what it was that I actually wanted (if you follow). I can honestly say that I'm not just giving the standard youth leader answer when I say that I want to do what God wants.

We use the word 'want' in different ways. Sometimes it only expresses desire, like the way that, at the moment, 'I want sausages' (normal British bangers just don't seem to exist here, they're beginning to occupy my thoughts). But if someone says to you, 'You want to eat those sausages before they get cold', then they're also indicating what is best for you; what you ought to do. They may even add the abstract 'believe you me' if that's what is called for. And I think that's how I feel about God's will. I was never Al Capone but I know there have been times in my life when I haven't been doing what God wanted and to sum it up, it is rubbish. It wasn't good for me and I don't want to live that way. The only place to be is in His will; not only is it the best for me but it's what I truly desire. I want to follow where God leads me. And so, my friend, do you. Believe you me.