The financial resilience of many in our nation is about to face a great challenge, we will probably all feel the effects in some way or another

Sally Pim serves with Global Interaction, working with the Yawo people in Massangulo, Mozambique. Sally Pim

Dr Brian Harris is the Principal of Vose Seminary and Pastor at Large for the Carey Group. Dr Brian Harris

Yvette Cherry

Pastor Yvette Cherry is the Baptist Churches Western Australia Women’s Leadership Pastor.

Our guilt and God’s grace

A few months ago, I left Mozambique to start my home assignment. On arrival in Australia I had to spend a couple of weeks in quarantine.

During this time, I read many news articles, blogs and stories of people around the world struggling hard in the midst of this pandemic. The more stories I read, the more guilt I felt. Here I was, safe, surrounded by family, with access to food, water and electricity on a daily basis.

Yet there were people nearby falling ill, isolated from families, running out of toilet paper and cancelling special plans. There were my Mozambican friends, preparing for this fight, equipped with little to no health resources.

The world is suffering, yet I am well. I’m not removed from this pandemic, no-one can be, but I am aware that for others there is a greater cost. Enter guilt.

Guilt isn’t a very helpful emotion when it becomes more than a reaction and stays as a lifestyle. It skews what our responsibilities are. Our guilt of staying at home doesn’t help the essential worker. Our guilt doesn’t give us back the time we have lost. Our guilt of snapping at the kids or spouse makes us more stressed, not less. Our guilt over not exercising enough, or not using this time for ‘the greater good’ is not helpful.

... if we stay in guilt, that is, do nothing about it, we miss out on what we have right here in front of us.

While initial guilt can challenge us and help us recognise sin, if we stay in guilt, that is, do nothing about it, we miss out on what we have right here in front of us. Guilt can force us into comparing ourselves with others and guilt lies to us about our own worth.

This has been a ‘Who would have believed it?’ season. Who would have believed that 600,000 Australians would lose their jobs in less than three months? Who would have believed church buildings would be closed, but not because of religious persecution? Who would have believed people would hoard toilet paper?

Personally, what looked to be an exceptionally busy year with many speaking appointments, is suddenly quiet. We make our plans, but the Lord decides.

Had she been with us, my mother-in-law who lived to be 100, would shake her head and say, “I told you so. Only God knows the future.” She epitomised old school, her letters always ending with a DV, and her conversation peppered with the same initials: “I’ll be at lunch on Tuesday, DV.”

COVID-19 and my mother-in-law …

“Is COVID-19 teaching you anything?” people have asked. “Yes,” I reply. “That Proverbs 16:9 is right: We make our plans, but the Lord decides.”

We make our plans, but the Lord decides.

Thankfully there is an antidote to guilt, and it is available to everyone – God’s grace. His grace shows us forgiveness, compassion and love. God’s grace changes the focus from what we have done (or haven’t done) to what God has done and is doing. God’s grace leads us through what is our responsibility and what needs to be let go of. His grace gives us a clearer picture of this world and reminds us that we are walking in the victory that was won for us by Jesus Christ. Why be trapped by guilt when we can be living in God’s amazing grace?

For those who are intrigued, DV stands for Deo volente, or God being willing.

Born in 1917, my mother-inlaw knew what she was talking about. A baby at the end of World War I, she then went into the Spanish Flu pandemic (it killed more than 50 million), then faced the Great Depression (leftovers on a plate always saw her muttering mutinously), a second world war and so it went on. As a girl with parents on a budget, received just five years of schooling, but was wise enough to learn two key truths: only God really knows, and only God can really be trusted. She built her life on them, and they held her steady through many a stormy season.

She had howled all morning – school was too hard, she had a headache, no one liked her, the teacher was mean. None of that was true, she just didn’t want to go.

She’s one of those people who feel all the feels. In a moment she can tell if a room is friendly or tense. She notices the subtleties of body language and facial expressions. She absorbs the emotions of others so that your stress becomes her stress.

Others had been socially isolating so they did not get COVID-19. She had been socially isolating because the world’s heightened stress was causing her to zing with anxiety. For my child, emotions are highly contagious.

Highly contagious emotions

It had been a particularly hectic morning trying to get the kids ready for school and by the time I pulled into the ‘kiss and go’, I was ready to boot one of them straight out of the door.

I was angry when we pulled up at the school. Angry because I was tired. Angry because life is unpredictable and weird at the moment and it was freaking my daughter out. Angry at myself for not being kinder, gentler, more patient. Angry at the child for being a child.

And then my raging daughter crooned softly, “Oh, Mum, look …”

She has been gone for three years, but if she was still with us, and I asked, “Of all the crises you have seen, rate COVID-19 for me,” I imagine she would say, “Oh, I’d give it a 6/10. The supermarket shelves might not have alcohol wipes, but that doesn’t compare to the rationing after the war, and the current death rate is nowhere near what it was for the Spanish flu, and you know what, it’s rather nice that our ‘enemy’ is not a terrible tyrant like Hitler, but a virus we can all unite against.”

And then she might say: “But why do you ask? Remember, only God really knows, and only God can really be trusted.”

She pointed toward a tiny boy and his mum. She was crouched down by the school gate, eye level, clearly trying to give her son a pep talk. Both mother and child had tears in their eyes. Parents are not allowed into the school grounds and the son was clearly struggling with making the solo journey across the lawn to his classroom.

“Oh,” she breathed, her empathy superpowers in full swing. “Look, he needs help. Oh, poor thing. Mum, I’m going to help.”

She jumped out of the car and approached the pair. She said something to the mum, who smiled, then leaned down to the tiny boy and took his hand. They walked through the gate and he waved to his mum. As I pulled out of the kiss and go, I caught sight of them in my rear-view mirror. The boy was beaming up at my girl.

I had witnessed my daughter step straight out of her own ‘funk’ and extend her hand to the small child. It was so tender and kind it brought tears to my eyes.

These days are hard, but take heart, God has given us a great capacity for love.