On 22nd December I decided to keep a list of concerns that people shared with me over a two-week period.\u00a0 I’m not much of a talker and didn’t expect to have many conversations to draw on.\u00a0 Yet even in brief exchanges, my ears pricked up when people invariably told me their troubles.\u00a0 I was shocked by the number of things I could write after only a couple of days, and realised how often news of problems goes straight over my head.\u00a0 There have only been two days where no one complained about their life:\u00a0 1st and 2nd January.\u00a0 Probably because we’re all on holidays…<\/p>\n
Here’s a short undetailed list of the problems of the average Australians I chat to:<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 the Christmas season aggravates the aloneness of the lonely<\/p>\n
*\u00a0\u00a0 some adult children never contact their parents, even at Christmas<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 some small children go to one parent’s family on Christmas Day leaving the other parent alone for Christmas<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 some struggle to keep their partners happy<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 some have the flu or gastro<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 others are in hospital<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 a few lost their jobs in the pre-Christmas week<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 others have been applying for jobs for months with no result<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 some have threatening neighbours<\/p>\n
I don’t have solutions, but I listen and feel sad with them.<\/p>\n
I got the idea of noting down people’s problems after reading the first few paragraphs in the book of Nehemiah.\u00a0 He had asked his brother about the condition of the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and learnt they were in disgrace and Jerusalem’s wall was broken down.\u00a0 His reaction was to sit down and weep, and then mourn, fast, pray and set about helping them rebuild the wall.<\/p>\n
While I haven’t sat and wept, nor mourned or fasted (not possible at Christmas), I have prayed.\u00a0 And like Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king, I have had some opposition, and some success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 22nd December I decided to keep a list of concerns that people shared with me over a two-week period.\u00a0 I’m not much of a talker and didn’t expect to have many conversations to draw on.\u00a0 Yet even in brief exchanges, my ears pricked up when people invariably told me their troubles.\u00a0 I was shocked … <\/p>\n