Being free and connected

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind Rom 12:12 We love transformation stories: Before and After, happily ever after. The hero goes on a quest or faces a challenge, in the process of which they discover their true selves, become a better version of themselves, break free of life-limiting constraints and sometimes save the world too. My heroes were Frodo, Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennett. And my favourite book was 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine l'Engle, with Meg Murry as the super-intelligent nerdy misfit girl hero (easy to see why I associated with her) who gets caught up in the cosmic battle of light, good, freedom and love against dark, evil and control.  Meg Murry in the film version of 'A Wrinkle in Time' In the 80's I devoured stories of transformation based within the framework of the Christian story: 'The Cross and the Switchblade' (Mau Mau gang members in New York finding Jesus), 'Chasing the Dragon' (Triad gang members and heroin add...

Pray continually  (1 Thess 5:17) T his is an instruction from St Paul to the early churches and passed on in copious books, sermons and lectures. It is one of the 'impossible to succeed' instructions, along with 'Be perfect '. The function of this is twofold, in my view:      1. to encourage believers to aim high     2. to keep believers failing so they have to depend on God's forgiveness I did try to remember to pray frequently, at least, for many years, but continual conscious prayer is clearly unachievable by anyone living a normal life, working, interacting with other people. So I always fell short of the ideal, and attributed many frustrations in my life to this deficiency. I was brought up in a Christian family, but prayer was simple and formulaic. I was taught to pray a 'God bless mummy and daddy...' type prayer at bedtime, and we always gave thanks before meals, often with a little song we sang together as a family:     Thank you for the...