16th September 2022

Contrasts and perspectives…

Last week began with a new Prime Minister and ended with a new King. This was the backdrop to a challenging week at work that more or less totally absorbed those of us affected at the time – and yet it seems so trivial to even mention it… swept along as we have been watching events unfold on a completely different scale in recent days.

We empathise with a family experiencing loss, thinking of the losses we have experienced too. Then we wonder at being caught up in a moment of history as a new King is proclaimed in ceremonies that date back hundreds of years.

In the midst of all the pomp and pageantry, are the pen portraits of a monarch who expressed compassion and empathy, who worked for reconciliation in a fractured world, all inspired and underpinned by her Christian faith.

It feels worthwhile both to zoom in on those things in life which really matter and to zoom out and see the bigger picture, lest we become obsessed with the minutiae in the moment. If the current moment feels overwhelming, it can be reassuring to know that “all things are passing”. When our world seems suddenly turned upside down, we can take comfort in God’s constancy.

I find myself coming back to words on a card from the Northumbria Community that I have tucked into the side of a mirror at home: “Let nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee; all things are passing, God never changeth! Patient endurance attaineth to all things; who God possesseth in nothing is wanting; alone God sufficeth.”

Ruth Allen