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Good morning. News reporters have been reaching desperately for words to describe the chaos in the Philippines. “Bedlam” it’s been called. Biblical images also come to mind. The prophet Isaiah refers to a time when “the earth staggers like a drunkard, it sways like a hut…and is utterly broken” (Isaiah 24) The storms here two weeks ago saw winds up to 80 miles per hour. As we know, the typhoon in the Philippines hit land at around 160 miles an hour with gusts sometimes reaching the 200 mark. The scenes of complete devastation continue to shock. There were early reports of looting food, though I think it’s unfair to call it that. With shops destroyed and goods randomly distributed, there’s probably been more scavenging than anything else. But destruction and disorder do go hand in hand. Civilisation isn’t some natural state into which we’re born. Take away security, shelter and food, and life becomes a simple battle for survival. Add in fear about the whereabouts of family, and grief over the death of loved ones, and there’s no space to attend to anything other than the most immediate concerns. I recall a former Inspector of Schools once recounting an observation of a mixed ability class in an urban comprehensive. He was assessing a nervous student on teaching practice who began an RE lesson by asking “What do you have to have to have civilisation?” As a way of engaging thirteen year olds this had some shortcomings. But a girl in the class shouted out “Is it spare time, sir?” The survivors in the Philippines don’t have spare time. They’re working hard to endure at all. Yet what’s amazed me is that, amid the havoc, people are building shelters out of the rubble, tending new-born babies with care and seeking to give the dead some dignity. Somehow they’re giving each other time, and that’s a civilising quality. Outside the ruined cathedral near Tacloban there was a Mass at which many people had gathered to pray. It seems remarkable that these worshippers, as desperate as any others, should pause to turn to God when everything was torn apart by the forces of nature. Turning to God won’t be everyone’s response but if there’s no raising of sights beyond the devastation there’ll be no hope. Civilisation is built on hope as well as spare time. The creation stories in the Bible are about bringing order out of chaos. Once order is established there is rest and spare time. It’s going to be ages before some of the survivors of the typhoon know the blessings of spare time again. But many of them are living as if they do, and that’s inspiring.