Methodist Bishop

Genesis 17:1-16 I heard someone say on the radio the other day that maybe one good thing about the recession is that it's giving all of us a once in a lifetime opportunity to reassess the way we live and to start over again. She was certainly an optimist, a glass half-full person! But she went on to explain that because we can no long afford holidays, houses, possessions and nights out on the town maybe we now have the chance instead to re-evaluate what really matters in our lives. This is a chance to prioritise things like our health, our relationships and what we're achieving. Of course, it's easy to push this kind of argument too far. If someone's home is being repossessed, if they've lost their job and have no prospect of getting another one soon, if they're desperately in need of a holiday or badly need some new possessions, health, happiness and relationships can be damaged, not strengthened, by a crisis and we can end up achieving absolutely nothing a...