Some would say that's a mental triumph, an achievement in itself!

 Holidays give you time to think more - and more time to think.  The journey to get to your destination, especially if you're not in the driving seat, gives you even more time.  I know, I've just come back a different person!

More time to think and, lets face it, we've had a lot to think about in the last few weeks.  In August a tragedy played itself out in Cambridgeshire with Holly and Jessica.  What family devastation have their parents suffered!  Our prayers still go out to them.  The nightmare of every parent - children late in - the glib "What are your worrying about?", when to your utter relief they appear back home.

 After recent events will any 'smarty pants' teenager be able to use that phrase again and go to bed with a clear conscience?  They now know, in stark reality, what we are 'worrying about'.  From now on knowing where they are is not being nosey, it's just a legitimate concern - dare I say - an aspect of Love?

 But, before we engage in the 'tut-tut' mode and go down the familiar 'things were different in my day' and 'what is the world coming to' road, lets just stop and think, as I have done so much in the last few weeks.

 Have you really looked at the diet of television which is on offer these days?  Come on ... be honest. . have you?  The 'soaps', the films, the documentary features - and their contents.  The raised voices, the lack of respect for one another and for oneself.  Hardly the stuff of 'Biggles', 'The Boy's Own' or 'Girl's Own' don't you think!  Oh yes, like way way back you're talking between the wars man!  Get real!

Excuse me, "What's real?"

 Come back Mrs Whitehouse, all is forgiven.  At least she invited us to think about what was going on in the world about us and particularly on television.  I remember listening to a debate at Hyde Park Comer in the nineteen fifties, 'Television is the Opium of the People'.  Now there's something to consider!

 Then there's the other conundrum 'Do we get what we like or do we like what we get'?  This world is what we make it.  God gave us free choice after the Garden of Eden and the mess we made there.  Don't believe it?  OK try this - what about your own 'Garden of Eden'?  We've all had them.  Some still have.  How are you going to protect it or have you already blown it?

 "Why does God allow such a thing to happen?" we cry in anguish, recently, real anguish.  This begs the question, where would you like Him to step in to your life and say "so far and no further'?  Would we then call that interference?

 With God, praise be, there is always a way out.

 The Way - Jesus.

 The Truth - Jesus (sometimes painful - you ask Him!)

 The Life - that wonderful alterative to the 'hell-of-a-mess' (for some with a capital H) we have created and continue to do in so many ways.

 I was just thinking    ......