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I like it when the experts admit that they got it wrong. It happens regularly at the turn of the year, when pundits remind us what they forecast twelve months before, and try to be honest about how far they got from what actually happened. It doesn’t, of course, stop them repeating the exercise, and assembled panels of the knowledgeable have been regaling us with predictions for 2015: how will the world’s economies fare?; what prospects for regions torn by conflict?; where should we be preparing for significant surprises? The general election might by common consent to be too close to call, but some courageous (or foolhardy) commentators are still prepared to sound even more confident than a Today programme racing tipster.

When ‘events, dear boy’ can confound the most carefully- laid plans, and make nonsense of the best informed predictions, we might be convinced by the old proverb that nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Yet we can still yearn for what seems the security of knowing what’s ahead, even when experience teaches that however blooming our work, health, relationships and general sense of wellbeing might be at the start of the year, we’d be unwise to bank on them remaining untroubled by Easter, let alone Christmas.

That’s just how it is, part of what it means to be human. To cope with the uncertainty this entails, we might choose to consult a newspaper astrologer, an activity which huge numbers seem to engage in every day. This is often, I think, less about knowing the future, than picking up the common sense tips of a self-help manual on how to handle what it might produce.

That’s part of the process of preparing for the future, which is the territory of both politics and religion. Sometimes for both that goal can express itself in a form of control which offers a blueprint for a new society and detailed regulation on how individuals must live in order to bring it closer. It defines enemies, regulates thinking, presents only black and white choices and above all, it offers certainty, not to be challenged. Secular and religious regimes of many complexions have done this, some brandishing the cross.

But Christianity as I understand it deals more in faith than in absolute certainty. It invites in Jesus Christ to a new relationship with God and a way of living hallmarked by love.

Of course none of us knows any more than the pundits how this year will turn out, for the world or for ourselves. We’re unlikely to get through without some questions and doubts prompted by what might get thrown at us. Seeking to do that with the generosity of a spirit of love seems a good way to start.

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