WHEN we look around us we often see that very little seems to change: suffering, fear, violence, injustice, greed, and meaningless still abound. We can be misled, however, because there is also plenty of goodness, love, and compassion in the world as well - it’s just that we have tendencies to focus on the negative and we fail to appreciate the positive.

However, we lament the fact that our Christian faith does not make the impact across the world that we feel it could. Too often Christians have failed to plug into the 'mind of Christ.' Over 2,000 years too many Christians have remained restricted in their thinking; looking at things in a dualistic way that sees either good or bad, right or wrong, and then thinking ourselves smart because we choose one side. We then remain hidebound by a common mind of power, greed, and sometimes violence, which gets us nowhere.

Francis of Assisi thought we needed to rediscover the "marrow of the Gospel"; we need to clear away the dross, the excess, the unnecessary additions we have added to Christ’s message, often because our dualistic mindsets constantly look on in judgment and seek to divide, rather than unite. Perhaps, if we clear these additions away and return to a more solid foundation, we will discover that the teachings and example of Jesus make a difference to our world?

It has been said that we might do better if we had the faith of Jesus - open, humble and trusting toward God and reality, instead of simply having faith in Jesus, which history has shown usually becomes competitive and sectarian.

The Rev Michael Woodcock, Parish Priest for Winster, and Witherslack, Cartmel Fell and Crosthwaite