What do you think of people who change their minds? You could surprise me, I suppose, but often, as I see it, people who change their minds are looked upon as having a flaw in their character. "She changed her mind," they say, "What's wrong with her anyway?"

Today I want to challenge that way of thinking. I will do it by beginning this sermon by saying: if you never have to change your mind, it is either because you're quite perfect as you are or you are very stupid. I mean it. Perfect, because you have always been right in the first place. Or stupid, because you are going to live with the consequences of a wrong decision no matter how miserable you are. Those are horns of a dilemma illustrating that there are times in life when a change of mind is exactly what is needed.

A few years ago…