Alastair Campbell has published his diary. I can't say that this fact excites me hugely. I may or may not read it, depending largely on whether I see a copy in the sale rack at about the time I have a long train journey to undertake.

Nevertheless I found myself listening with interest as he was interviewed at considerable length on the radio this morning. I spend the entire time wondering which, if any, of the words he was saying I could trust. He was winsome, persuasive and pleasant… but I just didn’t feel any certainty that I could trust him.

I was told as a child that I should not lie, not least because my trustworthiness was one of the most valuable things I would ever have. Lose it and it is gone, you can’t talk your way back into it. Or, to quote Stephen Covey, "You can’t talk your way out of a situation you have behaved your way into."

I don’t think I will ever keep a diary. Partly this is because I am too lazy to write every day, partly it is because other people are far more interesting than me, but mainly it is because it is not my own judgement of myself that matters. At the end of the day there is only one person who is totally trustworthy, and only one judgement that matters. My job is not to spin the past, it is to live the present with humility, grace and passion. And the future? It is held in the hands of the One who offers in Christ to hold me in the present.