Someone wisely said there are times when it can prove helpful “to step back and take the long view.” It can give you a fresh perspective on things.

Max Hasting ably illustrated this recently when reviewing several books that have been published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

Terrible as the casualties were, he says, (19,240 British and Empire fatalities on the opening day), many of us are unaware that until 1916 the French suffered most, with some 27,000 dying on one day alone in August 1914. And, he continues, warfare is always very costly - Wellington for example lost approximately the same proportion of his army, albeit with a much more acceptable outcome.

That’s a helpful insight, but I have to say that I have been reminded this week that it can prove just as helpful to ‘focus down’ by concentrating on the lives of one or two individual people. Statistics can overwhelm and confuse; they can also dull our sensibilities.

But as we have seen again, the death of one woman can prove far more emotive and influential than a list of statistics, no matter how disturbing. For we are able to relate to Jo Cox’s grieving husband and children in a way we never will with a list of figures.

Jo Cox’s death has been a terrible reminder that human beings can behave in the most brutal ways when they disagree with each other. And it is a sobering warning that we often go to extreme lengths in an attempt to silence those with whom we disagree.

And so, while thanking God for her inspirational life, and praying for those who are grieving most, we need to ask God for the courage to protect those freedoms that are integral to our parliamentary democracy. And in so doing we ought to remind ourselves that those we elect to any kind of office are as human as the rest of us, and deserve to be treated with respect, even if we disagree.

Jo Cox’s murder inevitably captured much of the media’s attention, but I found it encouraging to discover that at least one newspaper found the space to re-tell Kim Phur’s story last weekend. I guess most of us have never heard of Kim, or at least we have forgotten her harrowing tale. It went viral in 1972 when the New York Times featured a photograph of her as a nine-year-old girl, fleeing in naked agony after a napalm bomb had destroyed the temple where she had been hiding.

Kim has been in constant pain since and, perhaps to no one’s surprise, she ended up hating everything and everyone. In fact, she readily admits there was a time when she simply wanted to die.

But something changed her life completely, and that ‘something’ was her Christian faith. Kim is still scarred and often in pain, but she is now a model of forgiveness and love and is totally committed to campaigning for the child victims of other brutal conflicts.

As I read Kim’s story, I couldn’t help thinking that she is more than an inspiration, she’s a challenge to our increasingly non religious society. We don’t seem to do God any more, but I reckon we’d be a lot happier if more of us did.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]