A City of Selahs

I spent the last week in Berlin. I’ve never been there and was really excited to visit, but I didn’t expect to fall in love with the city like I did. The city is beautiful and serious and full of hope all at the same time.

Germany, like most countries, has quite a bit of darkness in it’s past, but unlike so many countries, it doesn’t hide from that. All over there are memorials and reminders of the painful things that have happened. It’s not a celebration of those things, but a marker to remember. This struggle happened. This pain existed. This darkness reigned….and yet, it’s time is over. We are moving forward. While there is darkness behind, there is brightness ahead. The city is full of it. They’ve dealt with their past in a way that is healthy and true, and they are moving forward. It’s a Selah. Pause, reflect, then keep going. Berlin is a city full of Selahs.

We can learn a lot from that. Where struggles and sin reign, there is victory in Christ, and light is up ahead. But we can’t forget the struggle once we are delivered. If we forget, we don’t learn. We fall back into the same patterns, the same pits. So we look back, we remember the darkness, and we see how the Lord worked in those times. And then, we look ahead. We press forward. We celebrate the victory and the light.

Create a marker, raise your Ebenezer. Write it down in a journal, or paint it out, or find a song to connect it to. Remember, so you can keep pressing forward. All the darkest times in my life have made my faith stronger. Maybe it didn’t seem like it at the time, but I’ve looked back a lot this year, and I can see so clearly now the light that was shining in those bleak moments. I can see what the Lord has done and I want to pause, remember, then move forward. Selah.

I want to keep writing, because there are so many things I could say. Berlin gave so much to me. But for now, I think I, and maybe you too, need to just pause, and reflect.

But do me a favor. Pray for Berlin. It is a bright city, but it is so much in need of the cross. Pray for the refugees flooding into the city. Pray for the people. Pray that as they move forward, the gospel might too. Selah.

*The photo was taken at the memorial for the murder and oppression of the Jewish people in the Second World War. As you walk through it, the ground is uneven and  the columns get taller and taller creating a sense of disorientation meant to signify the increase of oppression they experienced. At first it doesn't seem that bad, but soon you can't see out or around you, to the point of making it hard to find people in the memorial with you, encouraging the visitor to reflect on what the Jews experienced.