I am astounded at the fact that Ms Kerviel could run up debts allegedly amounting to 3.7 billion pounds, that's 3.7 billion pounds, for his bank without anyone noticing, or at least raising the alarm. What kind of a disconnected world do we live in where money has become so divorced from reality?

I heard this news in the same day as I heard about some friends who are in a dreadful situation because one of them has done something stupid. If I had a pound for every time I have talked with someone who has done something they later regret, which they can't explain, but they know they did... well, I wouldn't be able to pay off Ms Kerviel's debt, but I would be richer than I am now!

It raised the thought that it sometimes feels as if we have a rogue trader within us, taking stupid risks, flirting with dangerous fantasies, lying to cover previous mistakes. At times human lives can become divorced from reality too.

One of the things I love about Christianity, properly worked out is the way that God leads us to wholeness, trains us in integrity. We tak a lot of teaching and make a lot of mistakes, but that's his call on our lives; that's how we were designed to be, and it's why truth is such a vital Christian virtue.