Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but often themes emerge as we put a magazine together without us intending them to. In this one, it seems to be stepping out. Whether it’s the profile of Simon Guillebaud (p20), a missionary in Burundi who shares extraordinary tales of evading death while trying to preach the gospel, or everyday people being asked to do things they didn’t expect (see Odd for God p44), this month’s pages are full of stories of people who have taken risks for God. Not all the stories lead to dramatic conversions or life-changing experiences (although some of them do), but they all show, in different ways, the grace of God at work in the world. There’s another side to this, and that’s what happens if we don’t ever take a risk. Interviewing Simon Guillebaud brought home for me the reality of spiritual warfare. In Africa, he says, it is more tangible, and the devil is taken seriously. ‘I realise that it is hard for most Western readers to relate to the stories [in places such as Burundi], but at the very least we can allow them to sharpen our prayers and help us understand, wherever we are in the world, that there is much more going on than meets the eye,’ he says. ‘Our enemy is real. The battle is real. The stakes are high and prayer is crucial.’ Here in the UK, I am becoming more convinced that the devil’s best weapon is our complacency – distracting us with things which do not matter, to take our minds off the things which do. It’s why we’ve included a feature about the Democratic Republic of Congo (p50) – a place which isn’t talked about enough, but which is at the heart of the many problems Africa endures, and which we in the West are complicit in by our silence. I encourage you to read it, to try to understand the issues that make up some of the country’s complex history, and then to act. We may all feel we have too many causes already. But getting excited about something, and putting that passion into action, is what will turn us from consumers to activists. It may seem terrifying, but if we’re to take our faith seriously, we need to do more than focus on our own comfort. What is your cause? What is your ‘one thing’? What is God asking you to speak up about? What does he want you to do? Dare you ask him? You don’t have to take the weight of the world upon your shoulders. Leave that to God. But I do hope this issue inspires you, as it has me, to do what God asks you to do, whether it’s to be a missionary in Africa or to give a bunch of flowers to a stranger.