It's a promise he has never broken. He is the God who goes first:

• First in making the Covenant - and in keeping it when his partners (us) find all sorts of reasons for walking away.

• First in defeating death - in Christ he goes through the dark tunnel of the Cross in order to emerge on the other side as the defeater of Death for us.

• First in trusting a people like us with the Good News.

In the same way that we knew we could trust our caving guide, this God who goes first is to be trusted because he never made a promise and then broke it.

But Lent is also a reminder that this life of faith carries real challenges. When we stand up and speak out for the God who goes first we then need to be willing to go first for others.

We need to become the guide who can be trusted by others who need to find a way out.

Once my photographer and I had made it through the crawler tunnel we asked about the way out; not relishing the idea of going back through.

Our guide pointed high above to a large crack in the rocks and some blazing sunshine - "We go out that way today," he said. Faith believes that God will ultimately stand us on higher ground.

The beginning was easy enough - we simply walked into the cave complex from a river. It was a bit wet but level and easy going. Once inside we entered a massive cavern and stood in amazement at the stalagmites, stalactites and the colours.

This caving's easy, I thought: should do more of it.

 Then our guide told us it was time to move further in to the next cavern, but I couldn't see anywhere to go other than back.

Then he pointed to a small hole in the rock face that looked about as big as a catflap. It was the only way into the next section.

How were we to get there? On our stomachs, of course, crawling 15 feet in the dark.

I wanted to know how we could be sure it was safe and our guide assured me that he had been that way before and he would go in front this time - all we had to do was follow.

Well I guess you can see where this is going. We followed, we got through and the sight that created us at the other end of the crawl was just stunning.

My preaching through Lent has been about the God who invites us to travel with him. From the beginning of his dealing with a chosen people God made the decision that he would Covenant with them: "I will be your God; you will be my people."

As a young newspaper reporter I was sent to do a feature on a local caving club.

The photographer and I were already nervous about the prospect and getting kitted up in boots and a hard hat didn't exactly reduce our butterflies but we were being led into the darkness by someone recommended to us as the man to be trusted with this sort of thing.