International travel is never without stress, but our experience this week took discomfort to a new level.
We were sitting in an airport hotel in London trying vainly to sleep, as the overnight hours ticked by for our early morning check-in. There was only one problem. The Canadian government requires travellers to produce results of a COVID test taken within 72 hours of arrival in Canada. But labs are not necessarily equipped to come up with the results that quickly. In the end, I spent half the night sending emails and making desperate calls, and a very kind supervisor expedited the results.
Those results were scanned carefully by the airline staff at the airport, but when we arrived in Toronto the border guards never even asked us for them.
It was an absolutely horrible experience, and I have the feeling many others are enduring the same.
I think one word sums up the effect of the pandemic, and that word is dislocation. Dislocation upsets the applecart, which is why we now have a massive mental health crisis on our hands.
And it’s by no means over. The last eighteen months have involved medical dislocation, but the next eighteen months (or more) will involve economic dislocation.
Sometimes governments, though well meaning, cause more harm than good. Using fear to pressure people into agreeing to restrict their civil liberties may on occasion be necessary, but I don’t think anyone has a clue how badly that residue of fear will poison the well of mental and social health for years to come. Governments can be extraordinarily competent in being incompetent. Such as requiring tests that cannot be produced, and leaving people stranded far from home.
What did I learn from this? A friend I had asked to pray reminded me that God always has a plan, and that in fact this is something he heard me teach. Ouch! Circumstances drive us into God, and that is not a bad thing.
I also had a tiny appreciation of what it means to be a refugee, stranded with nowhere to go and no one to help.
And I also learned once more that God is merciful to imperfect people like me.
In the times lying ahead of us, let’s be sensitive to the dislocation people around us have suffered, and what it’s done to them.
The Bible reminds us of one great truth. God will never be dislocated from his throne or from his plan.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea… he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Thanks be to God.
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Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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