Be Still And Know

Psalm 130:3 NLT   'Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?' One thing the coronavirus lockdown has done is to test our ability to spend a lot of time with whoever else lives with us – although, of course, living alone brings with it different challenges. For many people, the rhythms of leaving and returning from work, attending church gatherings (large and small), having personal space, all disappeared.   I reflected on how fortunate we were to have a house with many rooms and a large garden. There were open and enclosed spaces we might occupy together and alone. We were thrown back upon our own resources, individually and as a couple, and these were tested.   We resolved to talk, pray and reflect. Some in the church quickly decided the pandemic was God’s judgement, but is this the character of God? Surely God seeks to woo and win hearts rather than enforce his kingdom.   As mentioned earlier, governments anticipate three pandemics a century. There was the 1918 flu pandemic th