All in the mind

It's all in the mind is a phrase I've seen used a lot recently, on subjects as different as:

how to play the Indian spinners (Geoffrey Boycott, who knows)
how to be responsible about sex and guarding against abuse
how to be a young, inexperienced driver (though hormones play a part too)

Some critics of Christian faith also suggest that it's all in the mind.

Time to emphasise St Paul's words to the Roman Christians:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

St Paul, who is often subjected to vitriolic abuse himself, wrongly, has it right: living a good, acceptable and perfect way of life does depend on the grace of God which comes through renewal. Freedom comes through submission to Jesus Christ.

Remembrance

5^th November 2012

Remembrance

In hundreds, thousands and millions they died,

and some unknown in the lonely loss

of a blast-dissected body,

all alone, unrecognizable,

or drowning in the toxins of gas,

or the ice-grip of a monstrous sea,

but all remembered.

Some were burnt and fell to earth but rose up high.

Some, tortured and warped, dying by inches for us

(or our enemies).

Some live to forgive and some can not,

and there are minds and hearts so gripped by trauma

that they do not know where to go.

And the families, the families! I cannot comprehend their injuries.

But I will remember them all, and pray for

the hurt and the harmed

and the heroes and the cowards

and all the dismembered of the wars,

And still remember that I was made because of war.