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Good morning. Over recent months, I’ve grown to appreciate my daily walk and one of my favourite routes is around Roath Park Lake in Cardiff. At the end of the lake there’s a memorial to Captain Scott, consisting of a lighthouse with plaque and also a themed garden once entered in the Chelsea flower show. This is because it was from Cardiff that Scott and his party set off, aiming to become the first explorers to reach the south Pole. But it was on this day in 1912 that they were beaten to it by the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, although Scott wasn’t to discover this until his party reached the Pole some five weeks later. Their return journey was one marked by mishap and misadventure as the weather worsened and they missed their planned rendezvous with the dog-teams. In the end, their supplies ran out and they died in a blizzard in a tent some 12 miles short of the next depot.

In papers found in their tent, Scott wrote ‘Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell… which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman…’ But they didn’t and in subsequent generations Scott has come to epitomise that kind of heroic failure often associated with the end of Empire. But perhaps a more generous truth is that not all ventures succeed, many people come second, and the value of human endeavour does not always depend on its apparent success. Christians, above all, should be aware of this, as the event at the heart of their faith is the Cross, a symbol of shame and record of a painful death, but for those who believe a pointer to Christ who is the resurrection and the life.

Almighty God, You reveal your power in weakness and your triumph in the despair of the Cross; help us to face our own failures and disappointments in the strength of the One who meets us from the Grave, even your Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.