I had not heard of Simon Boas until a few days ago. He is an aid worker, living (as I write) with terminal cancer; he has written a book "A beginners guide to dying", which will be published in October, although by then he expects to be dead. He was interviewed on the radio very recently. He was in good spirits, even though he was about to move into a hospice for the final phase of his life. As far as I know, he would not describe himself as religious, but his words chimed with me . He read a quote from "Middlemarch", by George Eliot, a description of one of the characters in the book;

"The effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

It speaks of how we influence people without being aware of it; the fleeting acts of kindness which we quickly forget but have meaning for the recipient. You do not need to have any religious belief to see this (Eliot herself had a complex attitude to Christianity), but with my Christian spectacles on, this is also about working with the Holy Spirit, the divine presence that is everywhere around us, seeking opportunities for us to let her/him work in our world. We are agents of that spirit, whether we realise it or not.