'the issue is not whether you like his teaching but whether or not he resurrected' Timothy Keller

There have been occasions in my life when I’ve been in mortal danger and had to find the courage to face the threat alone. Once in the Philippines I had to force myself to move across open ground under fire in order to reach shelter and another time in Bangladesh when I was surrounded by a mob that was randomly  attacking anyone they could catch beating them to death and then setting fire to the bodies.Both times I remember the sheer exhaustion of forcing myself to stay focused and calm but I also recall the terrible loneliness of having to face the threat of suffering or fatal physical injury alone. I survived but I would do anything not to go through the same experience again memories of which trouble me thirty years later. The fact is sustaining courage in adversity is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

There is an element of the resurrection story which to me is one of the strongest reasons that I believe something truly miraculous happened  two thousand or so years ago. Somehow the disciples found the strength to go into what they knew to be a hostile world and accept the most appalling tortures and martyrdom  moreover they died alone.These were not trained soldiers but simple farmers and fishermen who at the time of Christ’s arrest had already run away indeed when he appeared to them they were in hiding and Thomas for one still wrestled with doubts. I know without a shadow of doubt from my own life that  the good news they went out into the world to preach and subsequently die for must have been triggered by a truly remarkable event. Courage for an hour is nearly impossible even when, like me , you don’t have any choice but courage for a life time in full knowledge of the inevitable outcome ? No that has to be based on a supernatural certainty of extraordinary strength. A flame of faith impossible to extinguish.