How will you remember March 2019? For some people it will be a birth, a marriage or a death. For others it will be redundancy or a new job, an illness or a recovery, a falling out or a reconciliation. Or even the holiday of a lifetime.

The question of Brexit will be foremost in the minds of many people. Will we or won’t we leave; will there be another referendum or not; will we leave with a deal or just walk away; what changes will there be or will there be any at all. It is all very uncertain, and as I write in mid-February, nothing is very clear.

Uncertainty is part of life. One of the most difficult things in life is not to know what is coming; what is going to happen. Unpredictability can sometimes be enjoyable but usually it leads to stress. A study reported in 2016 found that most people would rather know for certain that they were going to get an electric shock than not be able to predict it. A team from University College London, invited people into a laboratory to play a computer game. Snakes were hiding under rocks and when someone found a snake they got a painful shock in their hand. A computer model estimated each person’s level of uncertainty for each choice made, as over time, they could predict which rocks were likely to hide a snake. Their stress level was also measured by looking at pupil response and also the amount of perspiration produced.

The study found that participants were most stressed when they were more uncertain about the situation than when they were certain about either thing happening. The conclusion was that people feel better about knowing what is coming, even if it is painful, rather than not knowing.

March marks the beginning of Lent, the forty days before Easter in the Christian calendar. It is a season of reflection and preparation before Easter, but it is also a season of  CERTAINTY that Jesus died, rose and lives again to give us peace, joy and hope.

By Vicky Wilson, Reader, St Peter’s church