In a difficult time in my life someone said to me, “You’ll be a better person for all of this.” I told the Lord, that “I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that good a person.” Seriously, I do acknowledge that the challenges of our lives do help shape us. Often we discover that difficulties and even tragedies often deepen our spiritual perceptions and enhance our compassion toward others. This does not mean that those problems are good in and of themselves, but that the God of all mercy is able to use them to good effect in our lives. In the present health crisis it is hard to look beyond the inconvenience and economic pressures to see anything positive. We are deeply grieved by the loss of life especially for our beloved elders and for the very young. No small blessing can out way the pain of these things, but we do hope to learn from our experiences. We do now know how much we took for granted in the recent past. We know that we can find alternative ways to stay in touch with each other. We know better how we should prepare for the future. Meeting together in worship as the community of faith is even more important than we realized before. As we look ahead, we hope for gentler times when we can learn our lessons in peace and plenty. Lord have mercy on us all, everyone.