As human beings we all run the risk of living our lives in such a way as to give the impression that the whole matter is something of a drag that must be endured!

What is it all for, we ask ourselves? Why do we have to be here at all?

And the media doesn’t help - so often we are encouraged to think only of the weekend or to keep going until retirement.

What a state of mind in which to live - or rather, not to live, but simply to tolerate our situation.

And human beings are thought to be the crowning glory of all that has been created!

And we are! But only if we realise our potential. And our potential is not simply to achieve, to succeed, to capture the attention of others - but to reflect in our lives that creative spirit by which we were made.

Irenaeus, one of the best minds of the second century in the Christian era, said famously: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

Surely, to be fully alive is to be aware, to be open to change, to be welcoming to all others, to be conscious of our limitations, to be gracious and thankful - and to allow God some elbow-room in the way we live!

  • Canon Tom Thompson, St John, Levens