Malaysia’s active COVID cases have increased dramatically over the last week or so and, to no one’s great surprise, schools were forced to close again. Though we’re in a milder lockdown (teachers at least can still work from school and we can go on walks and whatnot), there’s a general sense of disappointment and discouragement going around.

I have both heard and been guilty of having two responses to these struggles, neither of which have been terribly helpful. So, since I am not without sin, I cannot cast the first stone and that’s not what I’m here to do anyway. Instead, I hope to work through these responses and try to find some common, middle ground between the points of view and hopefully provide a small means of encouragement.