成人快手

From Paul Oxley, vicar of St Mark鈥檚 in Milton Keynes:

听Last week in a shopping centre (or 鈥榟ell鈥� as I call it) I had to get to the upper level. Usually that鈥檚 easy, just use the escalator, but on this occasion the escalators weren鈥檛 working.听

No panic, all we had to do was walk up them. But despite using stairs successfully since the age of 3, scaling the escalators became bizarrely difficult. My brain struggled to cope with the slightly larger than normal steps. My body expected everything to be moving and so reacted in the wrong way, and just like everyone else, I did that thing at the top where you lift your leg up higher than you need, expecting a large step, only to stumble downwards when your foot finds there鈥檚 nothing there except fresh air!

A lady in front of me also tripping forward chuckled 鈥淚 should be able to cope with this!鈥�

Psychologist Clay Cockrell works with millionaires: yachts owners and lottery winners who are surprised to suffer with depression or loneliness. The reason they approach someone like Clay is because of the same feeling I had on the escalator鈥� 鈥淚 thought I鈥檇 be able to cope with this鈥�but I can鈥檛鈥�

Writing a letter which made its way into the Bible, St Paul lamented that he too had a thorn in his flesh - only a small thing鈥�but something that made it difficult to cope.听

After confessing this, Paul had a remarkable insight; that the help of God, the presence of the divine, is only truly accessible when we admit weakness. I could plough on in my own strength if I want, or admit my strength isn鈥檛 strong enough.

Clay Cockrell battles the belief that money or title somehow magic away the niggling sensation of struggling to manage. They don鈥檛. They鈥檙e universal feelings. New mums and dads disoriented by nappies and night feeds know this feeling. So do hard workers struggling to afford holidays.

Paul battles the belief that God can only be approached through mysterious ritual or by perfect people. His point is that all those who need the help of the almighty can just, well鈥�ask!听 Though I suspect he probably had more important things in mind than escalators in shopping centres.