Watch or go?

Well I am here, although ‘here’ is a different ‘here’ to the ‘here’ to which I referred last time I said I was ‘here’ in this blog.

Now if that hasn’t confused you then your name must be “Sir Humphrey”, I guess; apologies, my mind is still somewhere in 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.

However, as far as I know I am in a golfing resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I say as far as I know because, in reality, I could be almost anywhere. I got in and out of a series of metal tubes with sticky-out bits and finally turned up in an Airport called “Myrtle Beach” where I was met by a complete stranger and someone I have spent the grand total of twenty-four hours of my life with before now. The stranger and Jack Bauer then bundled me into a car and here we in the poshest hotel apartment I have ever known.

And yet, as I tiptoe around this palace of a suite in the early morning, trying not to wake my two fellow occupants, for whom it is 5.30am (for the Bauer, a Canadian) and 6.30am (for the stranger, an American) whilst for me it is half past midday because I am still running on European time, I can’t even find a tea bag, let alone a plastic pot of UHT milk or three out-of-date complimentary custard creams.

Anyway, I have been thinking about faith. I realised that I had no idea where I was headed when they asked us to fill out a customs form on the plane, including a requirement to fill in the address where we where staying in the US. I didn’t know what to put, so put a description which saw me through customs mainly, I think, because I came in on my Canadian passport. Canadians are welcomed in the US. We go through the US passport and entry lanes and I was just greeted like a long-lost friend. There is far more apparent trust, faith in each other’s systems, than there appears to be intergovernmentally when you come into the US on a British passport. 

Moreover, despite my realisation of the trust I was placing in Jack and the stranger, they were there, waiting for me and all has worked out well. I am looking forward to all that this week has to hold as I meet up with American and Canadian Christians. We share faith in Christ and I am sure it will be a rich time, however it would not have happened without some very human steps of faith. Perhaps that is always the way?

Sitting in Newark, New Jersey yesterday afternoon, waiting for one of the planes, my mind flashed back to when I was a child and my grandmother used to take us on trips out with two of my cousins. We used to love going to the roof-top viewing area at Heathrow, and I think Nan did too. She never went on an aeroplane in her life, but watching was somehow exciting.

There are times in life when the decision to stop watching and get on board can feel really human, but matters far more than we will ever realise.