As The Sun Sets

Sun set or sun rise? Sun rise.

Sun rises have something that sun sets don’t have: the knowledge that there’s a new fresh day ahead of you. Plus, I’m from the east so sun sets were never that great anyway. But as I sit on the very late running X5 back to Oxford having been to my grandparents for lunch there’s a beautiful sunset. One where the colours go from soft yellow through a deep red to a dark night sky with a perfect shaped moon to top it all off.

I love sun rises because of the new beginning it represents. A whole day ahead to get stuff done. But a sun set can be either, a good or bad thing depending on whether you want the day to end or not. And then I realise what am I measuring my day by?

Today I don’t want the sun to go down. I want it to stay in this moment exactly, the end of a day but not yet night. This movement of reflection where I can sit and smile at the memories made with family I love. It’s not just the end to a day either, its Friday marking the end of the week. And man has it been a good week. Twice this week I came home and exclaimed in my northern accent (that seems to only come out when excited these days) and exclaimed that He is good and I’ve had the best day ever. That’s two best days ever in one week! I sit and reflect on these.

I’ve been having these weeks more often recently ever since my placement supervisor (who is incredible at my development and walking through this with me) said “Erin, I don’t want you to be productive. I want you to be fruitful”.

Okay yes productivity is a good thing, I love to get to the end of a day and see how many jobs I ticked off my to do list, but being fruitful is the true measure of a good day. See, I’m an achievement orientated person, my measure of the day comes from achievement. But once we have given out lives to Jesus this shifts, from achieving in the worlds view to a kingdom building mindset.

So, this week as the sun sets, I look back on a fruitful week. A week in which I learnt a lot and a week in which I think I helped to build the kingdom.