In creating these cards, I have had a number of interesting conversations with people who have suggested I leave out the darker elements if possible, because to show violence and darkness is on some level to condone darkness and give it energy.

But to work with the darkness over the deep, to hover over it, was the original work of the Holy Spirit in the Genesis account of creation, to bring it to light.

So let me take you into the world of anger and argument – conflict, in other words, which, I know, on one of the cards in the first book is described as the best resource we have.

It was Geoffrey Brown, former vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, who taught me the value of engaging with conflict, and more recently, John Bazalgette, who reminded me of the value of having an argument in order to tease out the truth.

Geoffrey Brown did it over a beer in a pub, in formal meetings, just before or just after an act of worship – any time or any place he had something on his mind. John Bazalgette, who relished the role of being a hooker in the front forward row in rugby, also preferred the direct challenge, albeit with the gentleness of a wise man and curious disposition.

Both wanted their preference for reality to overcome any fear about what might be real. What both held in common was a desire for truth out of a place of genuine love, and both were willing to have their own views challenged.

So I have learnt that unless we surface and raise what we are thinking and feeling with others there is no opportunity for fresh insights or progression. Of course some may want to remain in the comfort of illusion, but this is ultimately not a healthy place to be. Unless we challenge the other there is no opportunity for learning or recognising false assumptions.

We do well to remember that Jesus was angry, and that people said his anger stemmed from a place of righteousness: “He looked at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart.” (See Mark 3, 5.)

But enough of anger and conflict. I hope you can see that it offers us a valuable resource and that it requires a gentleness to work with. I return to the mystery that is this life and the Kingdom of God, which is not constrained by time or place or by the physical realities of this world. I have had far too many experiences of mystery to settle for a sterile view that everything can be explained or is logical.

There is a mystery to the universe and a mystery in each of us. It is just that we have barely begun to explore the height, breadth and depth of this mystery. And my hope is that by using these cards and commentaries we will be able to explore this further and entice others in to this way of living and building a kingdom that is fit for all of us to live in.