The Christian life is counter-intuitive. We are taught from birth to do all we might to avoid pain – physical, emotional and psychological. I was naive enough once to think I could live just such a life. Even after finding faith and accepting that to andbad things happen to God’s good people, I wanted to assume that God would spare me. And of course He didn’t.

One week to Christmas Day. For those lighting candles in their Advent wreath, today’s candle traditionally represents peace. Our world is always in need of peace, and of course one of Jesus’ titles is Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6)

Imagine if you were to drive your car with your eyes fixed on the rear-view mirror. It would be very dangerous for you and others. Yet, many of us live our lives looking backwards, not forwards. We feel safe with what we know and have no real desire to discover the freedom of the unknown. The familiar is comforting; the future uncertain.

Christianity is rooted in biblical revelation. This collection of scriptures provides our understanding of how God works in a world consumed by its own pursuit of truth. Such is humanity’s presumption that it believes it has the competence to understand the origins of life. Yet, whilst answers are presented, they lead to many more questions.

As Christians, we enter into a partnership with God, which operates when we choose to obey and do as God directs. Here, the blind man discovers three things, still relevant today.

He learns that sin is not the source of sickness (v3). We are invited to discover the grace and goodness of God in all aspects of life. This challenges many of the frames of reference we have adopted from our upbringing, education and assumptions about life. This is testing but offers one measure of the sincerity of our faith.

Bound by the limitations of mortality, we can’t fully grasp God’s perspective. We think in weeks; God holds eternity in His hands (Isa. 43:11–13). At both the beginning and the end, He perpetually sees the substance of everything. Following God requires our trust, especially when life makes no immediate sense.

It’s sometimes difficult to believe, when all the evidence suggests that all we are believing in is disintegrating before our very eyes. Each of us will have a story where, when invited to believe, we stumbled and messed up.

Many never find the fullness of God they yearn for. That is because we live between the devil’s darkness and the light of God. Our society places huge pressure upon us to conform to standards that are irrelevant as far as the gospel is concerned.

The best of intentions is subject to sabotage, often by our own hand. Simply responding to Jesus is a great first step into a life subject to constant change – but only ever a first step. We are all used to seeing bright sunshine suddenly obscured by passing clouds. So with us. We feel full of God’s Spirit and then darkness engulfs us, we struggle and fall. This is the nature of growing into maturity in Christ. The perennial question remains; how much do we want Jesus?

Observing sunrises is associated with summer, not winter. Yet they still occur. Waiting for sunrise takes patience. Once, on the slopes of Mt Subasio above Assisi, Italy, I waited to see the sun rise above the Apennines. It was cold and took time as light quietly preceded the bright orb’s return.