How often do you hear, or read about, people who say: “getting ‘cancer’ (read debilitating affliction or some particularly nasty accident) was the best thing that ever happened to me!”
Now I do appreciate there are eternal optimists out there, who can usually put a positive spin on most things, but when you hear the stories coming out of Victoria about the impact of the devastating fires on hundreds of families, you would have to admit there must be more to it than that.
Of course the church has traditionally helped many people in times of dire need, however in the largely secular 21st century most believers and non-believers in the first instance turn to their neighbours and close friends for emotional support… and they get it.
What’s more, they often get it from people they don’t even know!
This attribute – I believe – is a fundamental characteristic of the Aussies I know and love and I can, as a migrant to this country travelling alone nearly 25 years ago myself, recall numerous instances when the hand of kindness was extended by complete strangers.
They say bush fires are mostly ‘Acts of God’; a term these days more often used by insurance companies to describe any event they can’t withhold policy payouts or sue someone else for.
Similarly bush fires, like the financial meltdown or global warming, are ultimately defined by the absence of someone to blame or seek compensation.
And it’s not that there are not people to blame; quite the contrary, there are so many, and so many complicating factors that come into play. It’s usually more a matter of what individuals and groups didn’t do rather than what they did – this creates a recurring dilemma of modern life and makes us all unwitting ‘victims of complexity’.
Perhaps it’s our peculiar history and that Australians have had to confront this type of dilemma over the years and this has made them acknowledge that bad things do in fact happen to good people… and we not only accept its inevitability, but act on it.
Some would say this is a very Christian thing to do. Although the concept is an integral part of most religions, I would say it is just the right thing to do! | 
