Identify yourself

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We read a lot these days about identity theft. In the last year it cost £1.9bn in the UK, affecting an estimated 1.8 million people.

Wikipedia states that “the victim of identity theft (here meaning the person whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator’s actions. Organizations and individuals who are duped or defrauded by the identity thief can also suffer adverse consequences and losses, and to that extent are also victims.”

How does he do that again?

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Sometimes he does it in the form of an amazing miracle, such as sending manna and quail to feed the Israelites in the desert. Sometimes he does it through the voice of Jesus, who told Lazarus to come out of the tomb. Sometimes he does it through Peter’s shadow, healing the sick at the side of the road, and sometimes he does it through the great evangelists of today. Sometimes it is spontaneous, mostly it is through prayer, always it is because of love.

Either or not neither

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I remember the first multi-choice exam I ever sat. It was in History, and I thought it was a brilliant idea, especially when I got the result. As far as I can remember, each question had four possible answers, so my chances of getting the the right answer went up from zero to one in four! It was easier to think about which one to pick than to think up an answer. History and I parted company soon after.

We all like choice, and the more choice we have the better, eh? Sometimes we make the right choice, sometimes the wrong one. Sometimes we get spoiled for choice, and we end up flipping a coin. Sometimes, though, we are spoiled by choice, not for it.

What goes down!

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I have been reading an amazing book – Faith and Doubt, by John Ortberg. In part of the book, John explains that there are three kinds of faith: the faith that we say we have. This is what I call “Sunday faith”. It is where we tell people that we have faith for something, but…