null pointer exception from Logger.getLogger

[eggheadonist]

Hi guys

I have no doubt that I am being complete moron in this case, but I'd appreciate you help in pointing out the obvious.

I am getting a null pointer exception in the contructor for class Foo below in the line logger.debug(..). It seems logger is null. When I move the assignment of "logger = logger.getLogger(MessageService.class)" to the contructor the problem goes away & change to non-static. Why is this is? What is happening here?

Much appreciate.

public class Foo {

private static final Foo instance = new Foo();

static Logger logger = logger.getLogger(MessageService.class);

public Foo() {
logger.debug("constructor called.");
}

public static Foo getInstance() {
logger.debug("getInstance called.");
return instance;
}