How do we cling on in such circumstances? The writer's answer is "by faith." Faith is a word with a low currency today. "People of faith" is used on the TV to simply mean "belonging to a world religion," a definition so broad as to make the word practically useless. When the Bible uses it, it means something much more precise: faith in God's promises, trust in God's revealed true truth, acting on the evidences of what God has done in the world and in our lives, putting all our eggs in one basket - namely believing with security that God is real and has sent his son to atone for our sins and bring us to God. That's Christian faith. It isn't vague, nebulous or intangible. It isn't wish fulfilment or make-believe. It isn't "If I can just kid my brain to believe something that isn't true then maybe some magic will happen." It is neither irrational nor a mere intellectual appreciation of some facts we find incontrovertible.