I can look back on a really rich life, with the joy of working with hundreds of young people.  Many of them have been staff with us in Constanța.  They have given their best in making the city a better place, all of them with several years’ commitments and some over a decade.  What a blessing!  Many more have been with us for months, weeks or days, and it has been a great joy to work alongside such amazing people. 

I am so thankful for living the life I have been living.  I have a beautiful wife, who through all these years has been my co-leader, best friend and lover.  I have four great children who all are unique and wonderful in their giftings.  I have reached a point in life where two of our children have moved out and I think many men would go into a bit of a crisis- a mid-life crisis.  It’s not that this hasn’t affected me, because in all reality it has.  Looking around, thinking of all I want to achieve and looking at what others have done, it can definitely hit me hard from time to time and I can go into dark place.  But lately I am reminding myself of all the good things I have in life and it gets me to some point of perspective. 

While writing this blog I am a part of a group running a leadership seminar in a small and beautiful Transylvanian village.  My dear friends and mentors Rite and Stephe Mayers have developed this great course and one of their sessions is called “Tipsy”.  Some of you will think that just because we get a bit tipsy life will look a bit better and there is a yes and no to that. 

Have a look:

1. Thanksgiving – What if every morning we make a list of things we are thankful for, specifically for this day?  What do you think will happen?  Try for a month, every day to have new things to be thankful for… 
2. Intercession – Prayer.  Some of you may not believe in an Almighty God, but you can still follow this exercise.  Take a minute and ask God for what to pray and see what comes to your mind.  Say it out as a prayer…
3. Priorities – What is on you schedule today?  What is important and what’s not?  What gives you joy and what are things you doing because it is an obligation?  Are you able to breathe in and breathe out looking at these priorities?
4. Silence- In a world that is demanding and where there are a lot of voices, can we be silent?  The Bible says “Be silent and know that I am God”.  Hmmm, can we find that place of silence where we lower our shoulders and know it will be ok in the end? 
5. Your Word for today- I sit down every morning and read from the old Book, my book at the moment is called the Message and I love Eugene Peterson´s work on giving an old message a new language.  Reading a good word, a proverb and an old psalm is amazing.  I go book by book at the moment marking and declaring that I have read it.  This time of meditation is life giving.  I also always try to have one or two books next to me that give me perspective on life.  My last book was a Norwegian book written about the Reformation by a professor in politics.  It was amazing and gave me new knowledge and perspectives on Europe. 

For a balanced life I think we need a bit of TIPSY in our life. 

I am coming to a point of gratitude for all the beautiful people I have had and have in my life- people that make life so much more a joy and so much more colorful. 

Let’s work on our open-ending gratitude! 

Till next time 

From a man that just turned 40 😉 

Rune Sæther