We've all been touched, deeply moved in fact, by the spirit of generosity expressed by Australians in response to the Victorian bushfire disaster, now referred to, infamously as "Black Saturday". The amount of money, material aid and other assistance given to survivors of this tragedy has been inspirational - it has restored a level of hope in our community's ability to take care of itself, especially it's hurting and vulnerable. But I guess it was only a matter of time before the shadow-side of people's hearts was revealed. And an ugly shadow-side it is...This white man listened today to two former home-owners who shared a common bond - they both lost their homes in the bushfires. But their circumstances are quite different. And yet somewhere in the midst of commonly shared suffering and loss, resentment and selfishness emerged. You see one man's house was insured and the other man's house wasn't. And all it took was the issue of the intended allocation of cash relief to re-build their houses to light a spark of anger, particularly from the insured guy towards the uninsured guy. The issue was this - higher levels of financial assistance are being contemplated for uninsured former home owners who have lost everything. Yet some insured home owners, such as this aggrieved man in question, resent this as they feel that the uninsured shouldn't receive special dispensation as it was "their own fault" for not being insured.
Everybody knows that currently the economy is struggling. And when the economy struggles, people struggle with it. When the purse strings get tighter, people naturally focus on covering the essential expenses like food, utility bills, car etc... Unfortunately, one of the first things that gets pushed to the side as a perceived lesser immediate need is insurance. I mean let's face it - insurance itself is a little like gambling - you are outlaying money on the chance that something might happen to that which you are insuring. And many people in recent times just haven't had that excess money to outlay. Hence, larger numbers of uninsured people who have let go their home insurance policies; uninsured people who lost more than their homes in the fires - they also lost their hope for material restitution.
Which brings this white man back to the ugly spirit that is emerging - a kind of shadowy jealous resentment from some towards those who really do need more assistance than them. Where is the charity in spirit from people such as these towards the needy? Does the example of community generosity to all the affected mean anything? All this white man can resign himself to believing is that no matter what happens in God's universe people will always just be people; inheritently fallen in nature and self-absorbedly selfish. When will people learn to look outside of themselves for once? When will selfless grace prevail? Maybe the more appropriate question should be this - when is Jesus coming back?!
1 comment:
I am sure that investigation into why some did not have insurance would reveal that they simply could not afford it, through no fault of their own. Struggling to buy a home, keep a family and provide them with the necessities of life, on a low wage, gives no hope of paying insurance, nor health insurance. I think that people's income should be checked and their life-styles. which would often reveal that they do not waste any of the lower income they have.
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