More people go to their GP suffering from depression than any other affliction. Mental health problems among all ages, but also increasing among the young are ever rising.

Now we can point at the alarming political news daily on our screens; we can cite workplace stress, the accelerating pace of modern life, the commoditisation of people in our aggressive materialist economies, a breakdown in traditional community structures, so many people living on their own, in fact a whole host of distressing reasons

But least part of the answer, was taught to us over two thousand years ago, but sadly as G.K. Chesterton once commented: 

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Of course we need to put food on the table, clothes on our backs. Of course, we want ourselves and our loved ones to be safe and healthy and happy.

But is the relentless, single-minded, blinkered pursuit of possessions the means to fulfilment and peace, of truly realising our human potential?

Do we work on the state of our souls, our precious inner spirit, do we devote as much time, attention and care to the person that we are and might yet become, as we do to the accumulation of the so-called treasures of this world?

So what is Jesus trying to tell us, and why don’t we listen?