Koselig is Contentment

I know Koselig is a term out of left-field, so let’s connect all those dots and help you understand the “why” behind our brand.

Back in November, I was reading Psalm 119:41 “Because of your steadfast love and your salvation, then I shall have an answer for him who taunts me.” Because of the Lord’s love for us, because of the salvation that we have in the Lord, THEN I will have an answer for the devil and a way to fight back the enemy who taunts me. Not because of anything that I have to offer, but because of the salvation the Lord offers me and the love He shows me freely.

If the Lord’s Word is true (if the Bible is true) then we know this is a promise of the Lord that will be never-failing. If we have His love and we have His salvation, then we have power over the enemy forever, always, and there is nothing that will ever be able to take that truth away from us.

But the Bible also says that we, as children of God, are honored. We are FAVORED. We are CHOSEN. So if I believe what the Bible says about always having power over the enemy, how come I have such a hard time believing that I even remotely could be a chosen and favored child of God? Friends, I’m going to tell you right now: you can’t believe one part of the Bible, and not believe another part. It’s kind of an all-or-nothing thing. If you believe that what God says through His Word is true about one specific thing, then by default you should believe all of what God says is true in the entirety of the Bible.

So there’s something in my heart, something that the enemy has closed off, that is keeping me from believing this truth that I am chosen and favored in the eyes of the Lord. We ALL are chosen and favored in the eyes of our Father, no matter what our past may look like. And I don’t know why I have such a hard time believing that I can be loved.

So the Lord took me to Matthew 11:28-30…

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This passage basically says you’ll never find true rest until you learn how to rest in the Lord. And I had SUCH A HARD TIME understanding this in a practical way. I have 4 kids and I am always tired. So. Very. Tired. All the time. And so I thought that the Lord was telling me that He’d give me physical rest because that’s what I really needed, right?

But the Lord is teaching me, day by day, that’s not exactly the type of rest He gives. We’re going to be tired. We live in earthly bodies and we have earthly struggles. It’s just part of the way that it is. But the rest that He gives is better than physical rest. It’s for our hearts. It’s for our souls.

So for me, if I’m wrestling with this idea of being a chosen, favored, sought out, child of God, the only way to stop that wrestling is to rest in the Lord and rest in what His word says, and rest in the promises that He’s already given to me. That’s really what it comes down to. In other words, it’s kind of like faith. If I don’t believe that I’m chosen and favored, the best thing for me to do is to have faith in who God says He is and have faith in who God says I am. To have faith and rest in the fact that I can trust the God that’s proven to be faithful to me.

What does all of this have to do with Awaken Koselig? Well, a big part of the koselig culture in Norway is finding contentment. About being content in the dead of a long and tortuous winter. About being content in the darkness. (Norwegian winters are very similar to Alaskan winters where it’s dark for most of the day and only light for a few hours.)

For me, finding contentment where I’m at right now, in the valley that I’m in. In the hardships of motherhood and figuring out all of what that entails, is finding contentment in who the Lord says that I am. And so really this idea of rest goes hand-in-hand with koselig. It’s not a separate thing. Koselig IS finding rest in the Lord and trusting who He says that I am from His point of view, not my own. It’s learning to see the faithfulness of the Lord even in my valley, even on the toughest days with my kids. It’s being able to find the faithfulness of God in my everyday and seeing the peace that God has brought me even in those hard times. It’s being able to see His joy and His grace being imparted to me on a regular basis.

I’m hoping that Awaken Koselig will help to open your eyes to finding koselig in Christ too. To help you find contentment in your valley and in your winter and learning how to give it all over to the Lord so that your burden is light and your yoke is easy.

For Awaken Koselig, this verse in Matthew about finding rest in the Lord and being content with how God says that I am will be our cornerstone, our pillar, and it will dictate every move that we make in this space. Koselig is coziness in your surroundings, but it’s also about finding coziness for your heart. Awaken Koselig will be dedicated to learning how to find contentment not just in what we’re wearing, what we do, or who we’re with. But learning to find contentment even in the middle of a valley so you can find rest for your soul.