In a sense, Advent is both the beginning and the end of the church year. It’s a time many Christians take to remember Jesus’s first coming and to look forward to his second. It’s the time of the church year that best represents our lives in this world—filled with the joy of Jesus’s first coming, and yet longing for him to come again.

If you’ve prayed much at all, you know that God sometimes answers, “No,” to your prayers. In our despair, we try to figure out why we didn’t get the answer we wanted. We wonder if maybe there’s something wrong with us. Or perhaps, God just doesn’t care. The Apostle Paul tells us about a time he heard “no” from God, and his response encourages us to keep trusting our heavenly Father even when his answers don’t match our desires.

How can Paul say that he boasts in his weakness? How is that he rejoices in his sufferings? He finds God and his grace hidden in suffering.

With so much content available to us, how can we discern what is good, biblical, and helpful? Paul is having to address this issue with the church in first-century Corinth, but it’s the example of another group that provides a way forward for us.

As followers of Jesus, we know we should tell others about him and we want to, but often we don’t because the models we hear promoted feel more like attempts to win an argument than to lead someone to faith. In a short paragraph in his Confessions, Augustine recounts an event in his life that points to a better way. Augustine’s encounter with Ambrose reminds us that our kindness toward others is a powerful witness to the gospel.