Australia’s poets remind us of the reality of living in this often harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving land of Australia. We live with extremes of weather.<\/p>\n
My Country<\/span><\/em>, written in 1908 by Dorothea MacKellar, places squarely before us the reality of both \u2018drought and flooding rains’:<\/p>\n I love a sunburnt country, How do we cope with the stark reality of these extremes of weather?<\/p>\n Said Hanrahan<\/em> <\/span>by John O’Brien is one of my favourite poems:<\/p>\n \u2018We’ll all be rooned,’ said Hanrahan, While Hanrahan’s sentiment resonates in moments of melancholy and foreboding hardship, it more fundamentally resonates with my experience of living in this land of Australia.<\/p>\n This experience is clothed with pessimism, yet paradoxically it is undergirded by an optimism expressed in a wry, dry humour. Here’s a couple more verses but I’d recommend that you take time to read it all. 2<\/sup><\/p>\n And so around the chorus ran And every creek a banker ran, \u2018There’ll be bush-fires for sure, me man, And the Christ-follower is called to be here, in this land of harshness and need. This Christ-challenge is unflinchingly presented by Henry Lawson in The Christ of the Never<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. 3<\/sup><\/p>\n With eyes that are narrowed to pierce Christ-followers in Colossae are called to be, \u2018in Christ, in Colossae’ (the Apostle Paul’s challenge, Colossians <\/em>1:2);<\/p>\n Christ-followers in the Outer Out-back of Australia are called to be \u2018The Christ of the Outer Out-back’; the \u2018Christ of the Never’.<\/p>\n Christ-followers wherever they be in Australia are called to be \u2018in Christ, in Australia’.<\/p>\n Now there’s a challenge, a Christ-challenge, no matter the weather!<\/p>\n With thanks to our poets and remember to financially support and pray for the victims of the recent Australian\u00a0floods and cyclone and the Christchurch NZ earthquake. Go to the website<\/a> for more details.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a>\u00a01. My Country<\/a> Written for\u00a0the\u00a0Tasmanian Anglican magazine, February 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia’s poets remind us of the reality of living in this often harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving land of Australia. We live with extremes of weather. My Country, written in 1908 by Dorothea MacKellar, places squarely before us the reality of … Continue reading
\nA land of sweeping plains,
\nOf ragged mountain ranges,
\nOf drought and flooding rains. 1<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n
\nIn accents most forlorn,
\nOutside the church, ere Mass began,
\nOne frosty Sunday morn.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u2018It’s keepin’ dry, no doubt.’
\n\u2018We’ll all be rooned,’ said Hanrahan,
\n\u2018Before the year is out.’<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAnd dams filled overtop;
\n\u2018We’ll all be rooned,’ said Hanrahan,
\n\u2018If this rain doesn’t stop.’<\/em><\/p>\n
\n‘There will, without a doubt;
\nWe’ll all be rooned,’ said Hanrahan,
\n\u2018Before the year is out.’<\/em><\/p>\n
\nTo the awful horizons of land,
\nThrough the blaze of hot days,
\nand the fierce
\nWhite heat-waves that flow on
\nthe sand;
\nThrough the Never Land westward and nor’ward,
\nBronzed, bearded, and gaunt
\non the track,
\nLow-voiced and hard-knuckled,
\nrides forward
\nThe Christ of the Outer Out-back.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n2. Said Hanrahan<\/a>
\n3. The Christ of the Never<\/a><\/p>\n