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Good morning.

I’ve always loved Tenby, a gem of a resort, its ancient church spire presiding over a muddle of medieval streets, and its pallet of pastel shades straggling down the hill to a real working harbour. And the golden sands, miles of them, a child’s dream and always an invitation to stride out with zest, or simply to meander gently or snooze to the sounds and smells which might have refreshed our grandparents. We need such refreshment, the chance to reflect, take stock, start to reset…what communities of faith are meant to offer week by week, with fresh perspective on all of life.

Of course we’d often like to stay in beach mode, switched off from anxieties we’ve tried to leave behind – about relationships, jobs, money. It doesn’t work like that even for those who live in places like this all year. Life isn’t always a beach, which is why we’re hearing today about the issues faced when the visitors have gone.

Pressures are part of what it means to be human. We may try closing our eyes to them, avoid the most challenging, find diversions, escape maybe into forms of religion which deny their reality. But they still come calling. Jesus told his followers that his way would include denying themselves, and taking up a cross. ‘In this world you will have trouble, but fear not, I have overcome the world.’

What matters when trouble comes is how we handle it. I’ve never forgotten standing on Tenby harbourside 27 years ago at a special service. A few months earlier, the tanker Sea Empress had run aground, spilling more than 70,000 tons of oil, polluting 120 miles of the coastline. Many thousands of seabirds were killed, fishing was halted, tourism hit severely. The magnificent North Beach was turned overnight into what someone called ‘black treacle’. Residents looked down on it in tears.

In that service people thanked God for the rapid recovery, and for those who’d made it possible. They reflected on what they’d learned. A natural history photographer, distressed at seeing plants, birds and small animals soaked in oil, spoke of the shared responsibility now that a global crisis had become a very local one. A key worker described feeling sustained through the prayers of others. And one man addressed God directly: ‘We wept in despair and sorrow. We felt so helpless. We turn to you.’

Life isn’t always a beach. And when the weather gets really rough, I think it’s worth knowing where to turn.

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