These are the days

It's been a while since I've blogged here and that's because one important law of blogging is not to say something if there is nothing to be said! But two random thoughts this morning.
First - the financial cuts this country is experiencing are now really hitting home hard to the ordinary people of the land now. You name it - and its gone up in price! Fuel, food, utilities - its all gone up, sometimes by above 10%. These are challenging days, and as a Church Pastor I've never seen this kind of thing before. I reckon my parent's generation must have seen this during and after the war, but my generation? No! This is a whole new world. From the position I have as a Pastor there are challenging days ahead and there are difficult days now. Seemingly and this is sad, the church for a few is low down on the priority list in terms of finances and across the land giving to the work of God is dropping. This in turn is making church finances hard to handle, and the days ahead are going to be really hard. I cannot express here my true feelings about this.
Secondly - and in brief, yesterday I met a man who really listened to me as a Baptist Pastor. It's a shame to say this, but it is - from my experience, true to say that that rarely happens for me in Baptist Ministry. I cannot remember when I was last listened to, deeply, in the way that I was yesterday. And then compassion and real feeling shared for me and to me.