A listening ear.

Talking with a friend last night about the value of friends who listen.In the broken world we live in the effects on the life's of many people mean that they have very few people who they can count on to listen to.

This global world has had the effect of scattering and shattering families .During my childhood my whole family lived within a few miles of each other and in most cases a few hundred yards.This gave me real sense of security knowing that there was always somebody there to look after you and listen to you.In today's world families are split up for all different reasons ranging from social to economic.Families break up leaving single mums and dads,people move around looking for work and the result is that we have too many people suffering from loneliness.

I think that the church needs to create space to listen to people and there stories.To value who they are and not just what they do.It seems that when people know they are being listened to by others that can be trusted God arrives .The church needs to be part of the answer in redressing the balance between global and local.

If you are a single mum with a few kids and you family is scattered or broken who will you go to to talk with and be listened to?Who will value what you have to say?Who will listen?

Look at what happened when Jesus listened to the stories of those with no voice.