It is not too difficult to affirm the goodness of God when all is going well—when you gaze into the eyes of your future spouse or when you sit by a lake on a glorious summer day.

We live in a rapidly changing world. Technology is constantly advancing. Political leadership is continually changing hands. Cultural trends are always in flux.

In Hebrews 12, we are given a vivid picture of the Christian life. The writer takes us to a great stadium with a long race track, and he invites us to imagine ourselves as runners on the track, enduring a long and grueling race. The sun is hot above us, our legs are feeling the strain; our chest is tight with exertion.

In 2017, the British Broadcasting Corporation commissioned a survey on religious beliefs in the UK. Strikingly, the survey found that fully a quarter of those who identified as Christians did not believe in the resurrection.

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Priest who, during the Second World War, spoke out against the Nazi regime and offered protection and shelter to many Jewish people in the monastery in which he lived. In 1941 he was arrested by the Gestapo and eventually sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.