I've founded a new 'production company'

called Northern Lights Dreamfactory.

So to speak. It's home-made stuff done on my little lappie, but it's fun and rewarding.

Just finished the video of our Nepal mission trip, with the help of my little macbook and Pam's camcorder. Listening to the voices of the missionaries and letting them speak for themselves is one of the key strengths of the media.

Camerawork's not very good and quite shaky, cos extreme zoom-ins require tripod and a heavier camera. But we use what we have. Shaky can be an edgy, MTV style, yeah? :)

Anyways, now working on the audio and video transitions and the soundtrack. Flow's not there yet, but ahoy it's on its way!

So I was thinking of a name for the end credits.

What are northern lights?

According to wikipedia:

Auroras (North/South Polar Lights; or aurorae, sing.: aurora) are natural colored light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar zone. They typically occur in the ionosphere. Some scientists^[who?] call them "polar auroras". In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis, named after the Romangoddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. It often appears as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the sun was rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis is also called the northern polar lights, as it is only visible in the North sky from the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora borealis most often occurs from September to October and from March to April. The Cree call this phenomenon the Dance of the Spirits.

Its southern counterpart, the aurora australis/southern polar lights, has similar properties. Australis is the Latin word for "of the South".

Benjamin Franklin first brought attention to the "mystery of the Northern Lights." He theorized the shifting lights to a concentration of electrical charges in the polar regions intensified by the snow and other moisture.

Light of the north, dance of the spirit. Mysteriously beautiful, glowing and encompassing. Wow. I knew I had to use this name for our church's video productions.

Here's to more!!! Anyone care to join me?

A million thoughts running

through my head at once.

But which one is it I commit to paper? Ink to parchment. Or rather, font to digital memory. 

It's all about choices. 

What, when, how you speak. 

Like Lucky's unstoppable stream of consciousness in Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the insufferable multitude of 'think' ensuing from him lays bare the human predicament. 

Beckett's tragicomic absurdist play was my lit text in JC. The fullness of its meaning didn't fall on me then. 

We're indeed waiting for Godot, or God, but meanwhile the spaces are filled with the monotony of thoughts translated into insomany words. 

I think postmodernism is just a generation trying to cope with technological advancement, heightened education and literacy, 'freedom' of thought, and other ideological freedoms. Since there are too many freedoms to choose from, pluralism is the keyword of the day. 

Keyword being highly associated with the newly-founded verb of 'googling'. No longer just a noun. 'Let's google the meaning of the word "metanarrative".'

But no, 'little narratives' (Lyotard) are the soup of the day, so let's tell your/his/her/my story, our way.

And definitely, if you hold on to any monolithic, absolute truth(s), you're in hot soup if you're in postmodern company.

See, one thought leads to another, and another to another's other. 

Just please, let there be an absolute something or Someone, or somebody else could get hurt ingesting too much or too little Prozac. 

What maketh man is his very, very fine mind; yet it is also his undoing.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

Brilliant sunsets are

God's way of showcasing simple, glorious beauty.

Why?

Because it happens every day without fail. Yet it lights up the entire land with its fierce, captivating fire every day, as if it was the last every time.

I saw this, in the hyperordinary act of walking out of my office. One of my rare early clock-outs, of course.

The burning watercolour of red, orange, yellow ebbs as the light scorches the horizon. It almost burns your retinas just looking at it, but not quite.

But enough to burn something deep in your heart.

That if God could create a new sunset every day's end, and a new sunrise every morning, what couldn't He do?

Everything may be in a one lumpy mess, all gooey and grey and black and hideous. Hate, deceit, anger, disappointment, all that leaving and quitting and giant mountains that you must climb; and fall, dust off your bleedin' knees, and climb again - the sun rises, and the sun sets.

And everything, new the next morning.

No, your problems don't go away. Just like cancer, Aids, and bad governments don't go away. But yet, the morning is new.

So is the enduring love of God. New, every morning.

He will see YMM through anything, because the church is His, the Church is Him.

Even if I'm unsure of anything else, of that I'm certain.

I don't need a conduit

to God.

That was all done with when the veil to the Holy of Holies tore into half, all the way down the centre of the temple. And when Christ said 'It is finished.' It certainly was finished, completed, dust-both-hands done.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. - Matthew 27:50-1

Now I can approach God myself. Or rather, it is Him who approaches me. 

So, beware of people who claim to be conduits to God. Only Christ is the Way... and even then, it's not quite the same as being a conduit, because Christ is also God. But he is the Way to the Father, that's certain.

Beware of those who don't claim to be conduits, but simply act like so.

Because we can listen to God, we can have a direct line to God ourselves.

It amazes me that even when I don't have time for Him sometimes to listen to what He has to say. I'm so occupied by thoughts, work, miscellaneous trivialities.

But the moment I drop them - the moment I turn away from them and look towards Him, He speaks. At the drop of the hat. That's how much I'm loved. I'm forgiven for forgetting, and He just speaks.

He can't wait to speak to His children. We just have to listen. 

       God, you're so faithful, merciful, and infinite in your love. I don't understand. But sometimes I catch glimpses of your glory. And that is enough.

A new, unknown future

and I don't know what's coming at me.

But God says, hey, it's okay. Every little thing's gonna be alright. You'll see. Hasn't it been this way all this while?

That's true, God.

Every day, work changes, and becomes something else. My work scope changes, people come and go, expectations pounce suddenly.

But it's not this I'm concerned about.

Things are moving fast elsewhere too. People are going, in dribs and drabs, sometimes in an avalanche. Loyalties shift, dreams die, confusion sets in, anger rises.

Does it hurt? Yes it does, goodbyes aren't exactly the mood of 'pop the champagne'.

But we move on, we press on. Why?

Because 'there must be more than this'. There is more than this, and I know it. What are we fighting for? What are we willing to die for?

And also because it's not about me.

How I feel, how I imagine things to be, how I perceive things ought to be done - this is all secondary to our higher calling. Nothing to lose sleep over.

And if we don't move on, things will start moving without us. Yes, God is on the move.

In the film Chronicles of Narnia, it was said that 'Aslan is on the move' - cue emotive, heart-thumping music, and bring on The Lion.

But, away from reel life, God is on the move - in ways that are unseen, unheard (of), and sometimes unnoticed.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:18

Sad or afraid I may be, but I know I am loved - and I'm loved the same yesterday, today and forever.

Every little thing's gonna be alright.

This is how Delirious has it -

Every Little Thing

Everything must change
There’s a mirror showing me the ugly truth
These bones they ache with holy fire
But I’ve got nothing to give, just a life to live
If your world is without colour
I will carry you, if you carry me

Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Every little thing’s gonna be alright [x2]

There’s no-one else to blame
I live my life between the fire and the flame
I’ve built my house where the ocean meets the land
It’s time to live again, pull my dreams out of the sand
Let your world be full of colour
I will carry you, if you carry me

When it’s all falling down on you
You’re crying out but you’re breaking in two
When it’s all crashing down on you
When there’s nothing you can do
There is someone who can carry you

Written by Martin Smith/Stuart Garrard ©2003 Curious? Music UK