Follow you - Leeland

You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.

All my needs you have supplied.
When i was dead you gave me life.
How could i not give it away so freely?

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow you into the world.

Use my hands use my feet
To make your kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until your work is done
`cause faith without works is dead
And on the cross your blood was shed
So how could i not give it away so freely?

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow you into the world.

I give all myself.
I give all myself
I give all myself to you.

And i give all myself.
Yes i give all myself.
And i give all myself to you.

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.
Follow you into the world.

Waiting on the world to change

I'm listening to John Mayer's song "Waiting On the World to Change", and it hits me again, that so many people are just waiting for things to change. I've been sick for a long time, and I was just waiting for things to change, for me to get better, but what I had to do, is to actually be the change. We often hear the saying "be the miracle", but when it comes to it, we seldom remember it. We all have ideas and dreams about how things are supposed to be, but we often just sit and wait for it to happen, and if it doesn't happen, we blame each other or God. It's such a tempting idea to blame someone when things go wrong, but does focusing on the outcome actually make our current life better. We have the responsibility. We often confuse the word with responsibility with the blame, or the "I should have..", but responsibility means being able to use your abilities to take action and change something and being able to make a difference to the way things turn out. About making the best out of what happens.

Many people, me included, feel sorry for all the poor people in the world, for children living on the streets, starving people, abused women etc. We have a list of human rights, and we hear and see it on the news, the fact that a big part of the world don't have the rights they ought to. And what do we do about it? We leave it up to the helping organizations to deal with it. We sit and wait for things to change, a lot of us don't even support the organizations who are where they are needed, we're thinking we need to use our money on other stuff, on things that we want, but not really need. We give money when theres a crisis, like the one on Haiti now, but is it really much more worse then living under 1 $ a day, as 41,1% of the world population do? Don't we want to be a apart of changing that number? Only to change one life, wouldn't that be awesome?

It was "godhetsdagen" in Norway yesterday, a day to show kindness. I think every day should be like that, that we would help other people, encourage other people, be a small sparkle of joy in the everyday life. Imagine what a change that could make to the people around you! I believe it would impact people in a way that people would be more successful, maybe not in their work, but in what really matters, having a life they love, a life filled with joy and love. Being positive around people rubs off on them, it is just like domino bricks. And it all starts with you self. You have to change the way you think, act, and it will rub off on others. Take responsibility of you life. Erica Jong once said: Take your life in your own hand and what happens? A terrible thing: no one is to blame.
My challenge to you is to take charge of your life, be the change you desire to see! Why sit around and wait for things to change, when you can do something about it? As Nike say; Just do it!

dagens artist

Happy New Year

The end of 2009, the beginning of 2010 in pictures

The hostess, Maria, in deep concentration while playing Kokkeli Monke

The happy coupleYay, Happy New Year!

What a day!

Today has been a creative day! its been fun! I've had a lot of emotions stuck up in side me that last couple of days, lots of things to think about, and what a great way to get them out by doing something creative. Today I've played the piano and sang a bit. I haven't done that in a long time, and when I've got this house all by myself during the days, why not sing and play without feeling the pressure with my parents there listening and singing along, and without feeling exposed. I don't mind having audience, but when your just playing to get out some feelings its so much better to do it alone ;)

After playing the piano, I painted. I figured out earlier that since I'm not what you call rich, that I would make some Christmas presents, so today I started to paint on a couple of gifts. It's such a great way to just use colors to express the feeling you're feeling right there and then. It doesn't have to be a motif, just color and you'll end up with a painting that you know symbolizes something real, your emotions.

And after the painting (can't paint that much at the time cause the paint has to dry..) i made a poem..haha.. not a big thing, but i think the creative flow came over me today.. and now I'm having fun with photoshop! I discoverd yesterday that dad had bought photoshop elements, so now I'm playing around with all the things you can do there.. fun!

I <3 Line

Line, or fine, I miss you! There isn't a person that can make me laugh as much as you do. We have so much fun together, laugh so much together :) You always know what I mean when I talk about my feelings, your always encouraging and inspiring. You always listen to God, you're being led by him, and just the time I've known you I can see that God has done so freaking much in your life! I love it! And I love spending time with you :) Just like that evening on Ikea (where the picture is from). We had so much fun! Testing beds, reading children's books, laughing :) Spending time with you always cheers me up! I.e. watching Glee with you. Who am I gonna watch it with now? It's not that funny without you!

Can't wait to have you over here in January! Its gonna be great!!! Love you fine-tiger!

First week back home

It's been over a week since I moved back home to my parents. It feels like I've been here for such a long time, and at the same time it feels like I just came here. The first days were a lot considering I was tired after packing and all the good byes. but it was fun at the same time, I got to celebrate my sister in laws 27 bday, I got to go to church with my brother and his wife, i met up with some friends, I've eaten a lot :P gone for walks, gotten irritated at the polish guys redoing our bathroom (haha, they didn't know I was home on monday moring, so they were yelling at each other so much and so loud that I woke up because of it, but when I got down stairs the just suddenly went whispering the rest of the week), and I've also experienced something sad, a friend passed away. When you loose someone you realize how much you love the people you're surrounded with, and you see the support and love they give during a difficult time. It also makes you aware of saying to your friends that you love them, to actually talk to friends you see are struggling, to not take people for granted. On the other hand to loose someone is frustrating. Why couldn't God just stop him from dying, why does the family have to go through this when they've already been through so much? It's not easy to answer these questions, and all I can think of is that this is not Gods will, we live in a evil world, theres a constant battle for us, a battle for our lives, and what God really wants us to do is to open up for his love, enduring love, and I pray that this time of grief would bring people closer to God, to his everlasting love. And it is with Gods love that we as Christians also have hope and life, that death isn't the end of things. it's just the stopover to heaven.

Back to the week ;) all in all it's been good to be back home. I do miss the quest tigers, but theres no place like home, right? Not only are you surrounded by family that loves you and supports you, but hey, everything is free! haha