Reassurance

We live in an uncertain world.

And none more so than Zimbabweans. It has been our experience in recent years that we wake one morning to find the fundamental rules of our lives and society completely changed, by decree. Without warning. Without notice. For instance. One day we have a mad currency and seventeen trillion in the bank and the next that is utterly useless (not that it wasn't before) and we are borrowing someone else's currency.  That day, everyone from richest to poorest was equal. We all had nothing.

Consequent on that particular change most businesses are severely under capitalised, including the banks ... so they have no funds to lend .... its a vicious circle.

And I have spent the last two and half years working with clients to find ways of recapitalising their businesses to keep them viable and functioning. Presently I am working hard with a client who is attempting the near impossible - to significantly grow in our near moribund economy. The effect has been to stretch her resources to breaking point and she teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. Either she is going to make a mint or go down in flames. She will need more than sound planning to make this happen .... she will need those indefinable qualities of courage and hard work and perseverance and, I beleive, a large slice of luck or grace.

The most difficult thing, when she and I work together, is not to offer trite reassurance. It would be so easy to say "it'll be alright" and "don't worry" and  "it's gonna be fine" or "it will work out". Verbal pats on the arm. I don't know any of these things for certain and saying them is not only wrong but unhelpful. My client needs me to walk with her, participating in her problems, being part of the solution, being a listening post as she faces her worst fears and dreams her best dreams. This is how I see my work as a professional.

As things have become more and more difficult for her I have wondered at the nature of reassurance in such an uncertain world. In a wider scope how do we offer reassurance to those who need it, and what sort of reassurance do we need when life gets hard?

And most of all, how does God offer us reassurance in the midst of our uncertain lives?