Do I believe in God?
Sometimes I do.
Sometimes I don’t.
The fact is that I can be touched by people who do. It’s contagious.
Kenneth Stenbraten is a good friend from Stord, Norway. He is a professional, a co-worker. Team Leader of a Housing First Team in that beautiful city. And that makes us brothers from another Mother.
That’s family anyway. Everyone who knows that you eliminate homelessness simply by giving people a home.
This week he posted the recording of a beautiful Norwegian song. Sung by him. It gave me goose bumps. I asked him about the whereabouts of this song.
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This song was written in 1947 by a man whose name was Aage Samuelsen.
Aage. He was a well-known preacher in Norway. He was open about his hard upbringing and by the age of 30, he was heavily addicted to alcohol. In one interview on national television in 1978 he told about how he earlier couldn’t live without alcohol, and he said that he considered alcohol to be one of the worst demons. Because of his own experience, he said, he could never judge a man who is in this fight.
He describes with his own words how he one day had been sleeping. Then suddenly he heard a beautiful melody and lyrics. He wrote down these lyrics and started to use the song immediately. People that heard the song, gave their positive response. But, sadly, the Church rejected Aage almost his entire life. Aage said that the Church did not take Jesus´word seriously, and that their teaching is full of empty rituals and that the priest were insincere.
The Church did not want to print this song, but he kept on using it, and today it is one of his most known songs, and it still touches peoples hearts.
The song is about removing everything around us that takes our focus away. Like the story in Luke chapter 10, when Mary chooses to sit down just for the reason to be together with Jesus, despite all the practical things that had to be done.
It is in this intimate relationship with Jesus, all dark clouds and doubt burst and His light can shine through us. Then it really doesn’t matter what you have done earlier in life. All bad things can be hidden in his wounds.
It is this fire that is important to burn so that also others can experience this unconditional love.
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Whatever you think about it. Whatever prejudgment you have.
Listen to this song. It’s Kenneth’s dedication to a higher power, a sustainable meaning in life and love for people who are not fortunate. Like we are.
And if God does exist. Or not. In either way, we can’t leave it to a higher power to solve homelessness. It’s up to us to think of clever, cheaper, more human ways to include people in our society.
Meanwhile, I play this song, because it moves me, it provides hope, it makes me believe in higher powers. It makes you want to do the right thing.