As a comedian, I sometimes wonder if I look for irony or it looks for me

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

'As a comedian, I sometimes wonder if I look for irony or it looks for me. Those ‘God-incidences’ (I wish that was a less clunky word) crop up so often, at times life sounds stranger than fiction.

On that wretched day at the start of this crisis – that moment when the penny dropped and the rug was pulled from our comfortable world – I turned to the Bible for comfort. I was (and still am) reading The One Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation, but was a little behind. So, in mid-March, on the day of an effective lockdown, when my diary emptied and my mental health took its biggest tumble to date, I read that day’s extract: Leviticus 14 and 15...

It included such topical classics as Leviticus 14.38, in which a priest puts a house in quarantine for seven days. Then there was Leviticus 15.11: if you’re touched by that fella who’s not rinsed his hands, put a wash on and take a bath.

Thankfully I’m not just a comedian (comedy’s much-needed, but tricky sometimes, especially now all my gigs have moved online). Doing Radio 2’s Pause For Thought used to be my top-up job – now it’s my main income. Writing a ‘thought’ recently themed on angels, I heard that the angelic greeting, ‘Do not be afraid’ is the Bible’s most common instruction. Apparently, it features 365 times, one for every day of the year.

There may be a time for Levitical instruction: those hand-washing and quarantine tips are having their moment. But there’s a daily need to hear God’s main message, so crucial that angels utter it as often as we say, ‘Hello’: Don’t be afraid. We need to hear it, tell it and live it daily.'

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