Thought for the Day
A one-minute read to inspire or challenge. Written by members of the church and updated every few days.
19th June 2026
Sarah Dodds, good friend and former member (and organist) of Tyndale, has kindly given me permission to share a prayer she wrote for Music Sunday (14th June):
Dear Lord, we thank You for the gift of music; for all the ways it enriches our humanity, touches the deepest parts of our being and brings us closer to You. For pulse and rhythm, connecting us with the heartbeat of life, energising us and putting us in sync with each other; for melody, adding grace to the lines of our lives; for harmony – dissonance and consonance – revealing to us new dimensions in our experience; for timbre and texture, reflecting the infinite colours of life.
Help us, Lord, to weave our part in the music of creation.
Just as our instruments have to be tuned and repaired, tune us up to the tones of Your love. Just as musicians have to practise and rehearse, give us patience and diligence in following You and faith that we, too, can produce something of beauty. Just as we have to learn to listen to make music, help us to listen better to others. Just as we have to move past the wrong notes and mistakes in live performance, give us grace, humour, compassion and playfulness to dance on in life and be accepting of our failings.
May our music-making proclaim Your glory. May our souls sing of Your love. And may our sounds serve to reveal the wonder of Your silence in the mystery of time.
A big thank you to Sarah – and to all those in Tyndale and beyond – whose music making enriches our lives.
Ruth Allen
17th June 2026
Some of you will know that I have become evangelical about hearing aids since I took the plunge and got a pair at the end of last year. My life has been transformed by them: I knew that I was not hearing very well but I had no idea just how many high-frequency sounds I […]
12th June 2026
I have been reading two psalms over the past couple of days. The first, Psalm 33, is from the lectionary for this week; the second, Psalm 88, is from Guidelines Bible reading notes. You may want to read them in full – they are quite short – but here is a selection of verses that […]
10th June 2026
What is beauty? I think the mathematical result eiπ=−1e^{i\pi} = -1 is beautiful. Your reaction is likely to be “I always thought she was odd”. It would take me a while to explain why I think this, even if your maths was at least A-level. Beautiful usually means more than it says. If you say […]
3rd June 2026
‘Everything that appears as a “limit” – incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, vulnerability – tends to be seen primarily as a defect to be corrected, rather than as a reality through which our humanity matures and opens itself to relationship.’ Arresting words, which challenge our ingrained modern assumptions that life and fulfilment are all about […]
29th May 2026
In 1911 Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole, followed soon afterwards by Scott. Today there is a research station with as many as 250 people living there. Between 1915 and 1917 Shackleton and his crew struggled to survive in Antarctica after their ship was trapped in the ice. A few years […]
27th May 2026
WHAT IS NEWS? Am I unique in being cross with many radio journalists who seem to be intent on making news rather than reporting it and hence their aggressive interrogation of today’s politicians, as if national policy is to be made on radio rather than by the legislature? Another way in which our news service […]
22nd May 2026
Finding God’s Grace Today. There are days when life seems to run smoothly, and there are days when challenges appear before we have even had our first cup of tea. Responsibilities, concerns for family, pressures at work, or worries about the future can sometimes leave us feeling weary and stretched. It’s easy to become focused […]
20th May 2026
If I happen to overhear Merry talking to someone on the phone, I sometimes try to guess who it might be from the tone of her voice and the pacing of the exchange of words. If she’s being light-hearted and I can hear the smile in her voice, it’s likely to be a personal conversation […]
15th May 2026
A good disciple. Luke 7: 36 – 50, 1 Tim 4: 12 – 16. What a dangerous, messy world we are living in. Politicians stoke the fears of voters, world leaders insist that the truth is whatever they say it is, homelessness, poverty and broken relationships are still major concerns in our city. What are […]
