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Nothing was ready for the war which everyone expected. This quotation from Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ published 150 years ago, was used by the former Downing Street Chief of Staff Dominic Cummings in the Covid Enquiry last week to describe the British state’s state of, at the mildest interpretation, unreadiness for such a challenge as a global pandemic. The undeniably violent language of the WhatsApp messages, the admissions that day to day politics became a distraction from the deeper demands of governing, have all been laid bare by the Covid Enquiry that’s shining a light on the inner most workings of the British state. The relationship between, - on the one hand, political judgements necessary within a party system, and on the other, the longer term requirements of governing - is under scrutiny. Under pressure from the operation of a virus that didn’t invent anything, but exposed inequalities and systemic strains that were papered over in more ordinary times. And on this programme yesterday the former UK ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, drew distinctions in foreign affairs between posture and policy. Between short term judgement calls not removing the need for focus on longer term state craft and peace making. In these testing times the search for wisdom goes on: and a search for leadership; imaginative, compassionate, energetic, values-led leadership that is needed for a set of global and societal challenges that are interconnected, unprecedented and unavoidable. Christian spiritual practice relies on an everyday ordinary commitment to connect with what is ultimately, fundamentally important. The deepest possible perspective and the widest possible embrace; a practice that hopefully has become a habit at times when the fire fighting seems to have taken over. One of the most powerful parables in the gospels is the story Jesus told about two houses. A storm came and battered them. Both were hammered by the winds, pounded by the rain. Both were shaken to their foundations. The one built on rock stood firm while the other built on sand blew away. The storm is raging for so many today all over the world: the earth is shaking with grief and loss, blame and rage. Yes. At the same time, the long-term questions remain. What happens the day the storm ceases. Because it will. And the plan for what’s next can be built, even today, on the rock-like foundations of healing, compassion and peace.