It's That Friday, 13th again!

No, I wasn't born on the 13th, and none of the houses I've lived in were numbered 13. But I'm not superstitious!

I don't touch wood when I mention good fortune; I even walk under ladders and open umbrellas in the home. Although I have the good looks to crack them, mirrors don't shatter before my gaze!

There are airlines that don't have a seat number 13 on their planes; there are people who make sure they never sit thirteen at a table, as did Napoleon and the American president. Franklin Roosevelt. When our Queen paid a visit to Germany some years ago, the platform number was changed from 13 to 12A. Why on earth the train couldn't arrive at another platform is beyond my comprehension!

Yet, on Friday 13th of this month, someone, somewhere, will be spending the day fearing that he (or she) will be suffering from 'Triskaideka', a Greek word meaning a fear of the number 13. The very mention of Friday 13th strikes terror in many hearts. What a load of baloney! This universe of ours doesn't run by chance, any more than we can predict the end of the world. But for some reason or other, we continue to cling to our myths and superstitions, and bow down to our idols of wood and stone and flesh.

Read the horoscopes in the daily paper or your favourite magazine if you must, but know that no alignment of planets or conjunction of stars is going to be able to influence what happens to you any more than whistling in the dark will be able to scare the ghosts as you walk past a cemetery. The only reason for avoiding black cats is that they might scratch you, or give you hay fever; and the coins you jangle in your pocket when you see the new moon will still be worth the same amount (inflation adjusted) next month.

But the God of the Bible has promised good, not to those who perform myths and superstitions, but those who believe, and live out the reality that he has come to claim this world as his own, and whom he's enlisted in the fight against all that degrades and diminishes the quality of human life.