10th October 2025

What sort of week have you had I wonder?

On Sunday, at Tyndale, we focused on a Psalm of lament. After the events of the preceding week some of us were probably turning to God and asking, Lord, how long do we have to wait before our Jewish neighbours can go to their synagogues, free from fear of attack.

At long last this week a project reached a significant milestone, after years of perseverance in the face of challenges. At home when I received the news, I did a bit of a dance round the kitchen as a song from childhood came back to me … “Praise him on the trumpet” (listen here)! Later that day I heard that a friend’s medical treatment had been successful – a huge relief to them and to us all.

Then I’ve had an after-dark trip to Bristol cathedral. As we entered, the cathedral was dimly lit.  Towards the front was a 7-metre illuminated sculpture of the sun – “Helios” by Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram. The juxtaposition of this representation of the sun against the cathedral architecture was quite striking. The sculpture was somehow mesmerising, and it was strangely relaxing to sit there and look at it. I found myself musing on how dependent we are as part of God’s creation on the sun for life here on earth.

In all the mixture of things that make up our lives, God is there. Perhaps we might pray:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Ruth Allen