Ignorance compounds crisis

In times of crisis, one of the greatest aggravators is ignorance. Because we do not even know or want to know we are in crisis, we end up compounding the original crisis. For its not how bad things are, but how we perceive them that defines both the impact of our crisis and how we will get through it.  

Abraham Lincoln said of the American Civil War that the original causes of the war were long resolved, whilst secondary causes had provoked a longer-term conflict. The secondary causes exploited the original conflict to further the causes of third parties and so turn a basic conflict into a nasty and deadly war.

Flu is a routine ailment, affecting billions of souls each year. Most recover within days and move on, but many lapse into deeper illness. The truth is that flu does not kill, but secondary illnesses often do. Infection of the upper respiratory tract leads to high mucus buildup which is a cesspool of bacteria that happily and incentuously breeds away if allowed to. That is the only time antibiotics actually work, because the basic flu virus is immune to such interventions. Bacterial infections can lead to very serious complications, made all the worse by our ignorance about the right ways to use antibiotics.

Similarly, crisis rarely kills in and of itself. Indeed, most crisis is resolvable, but for various reasons basic issues compound and move rapidly down a number of wrong roads that take us further and further from a solution. One of the greatest causes for secondary infections is simple ignorance - people don't get indoors, stay warm or take basic health precautions, because they don't respect the virus that is attacking them or are simply naive about health issues - similar naivete causes simple crises to compound into major events.

Ignorance is not just about our response. Often it is more to do with acknowledgement of the issues. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross referred to denial as one of the stages of crisis and she was right - it is a major factor, although to me it is not really a milestone in crisis, it is a major cause for real crisis. The prodigal son was technically in a pigsty long before he started feeding pigs, but he had to sink that low before he could acknowledge his reality - God allows us to sink that far, not to make things worse, but to reveal how bad they really are. Sadly, our instinct for survival will intuitively dismiss it all or minimise the issues or compound the original problem, until we are so deep in it we cannot deny it any longer.

That turning point of acknowdgement led the prodigal back home - just as our own vulnerability will mark the turning point in our crises, for it is only then that we start to cry to God, call for help and take active measures to address the issues. Sadly, as many divorcees will testify, that often means too little, too late - although I firmly believe that anything is solveable if we have a will to change and faith to trust God.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net