It all seemed so easy.
I had been informed late in July that my application for Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) had been granted. My documentation was all ready and all I had to do was go pick up my new OCI card from the Indian High Commision in Holborn, Central London.
What could be simpler? I had just got back with my family from holiday and with the John Maxwell re-audit training coming up in Florida on 17 August, there did not seem much time to go to the embassy myself as I had so many other things going on. No problem I was told. Just send a special recorded delivery letter with my British pasport, paperwork and an enclosed special delivery recorded envelope with my return address. You will get it back in 2, maximum 3, days turn around time. So that’s what I did on Saturday 4 August and waited. And waited.
By Wednesday 8th, nothing. Then I noticed on the embassy’s website – holidays Friday and the following Wednesday. This was beginning to be of concern. I rang the embassy through Wednesday and Thursday. No response. I sent an email to the address given on the website. To date that email has never been replied to.
Where was my passport? Thanks to the Royal Mail tracking service it had definitely arrived at the right place on the Monday. My trip to the John Maxwell (JM) training was beginning to look in serious doubt if I had no passport. I was beginning to feel an inward churning inside! This was not good. We prayed about the issue as a family and I sent a request for prayer to my fellow JM mentorship trainees on Facebook. I went to bed on the Friday night (10th) handing over my angst to God, trusting that if He really wanted me to get there, then He would provide a way and if not then there would be a reason that would eventually be made clear.
Saturday morning and I was heartened to see a string of messages, encouraging me to keep trusting and that a way forward would appear in due course. Later that morning I had a surprise visit from a psychiatrist friend who told me an amazing story about how his engagement ceremony with his fiancee in India was only possible because her passport and visa arrived on the morning of her flight from South Africa with the ceremony later that same day! What was your plan B I asked? The only plan B was if she did not arrive was to do the engagement over Skype! All the guests had been invited, preparations made and it was too late to postpone!
Sunday, and we went to church as usual at All Souls, Langham Place. With the Olympic celebrations there was a special Psalms and Songs service at 4pm. We stayed on in London and came to the special celebration. After the service we met a long time friend who I had not seen for over a year as she had been in India. I mentioned the OCI scenario to her and she was very clear – Sunil you have to go to the embassy yourself! I didn’t want to hear that and I certainly did not want do that, but she was adamant. She also mentioned that there was an out-of-hours number on the High Commission website that was worth ringing.
That Sunday evening I checked the website again and found the number. Was it worth ringing on a Sunday evening at 8pm? I tried it – and someone picked up! I explained my predicament and the person on the other end advised me to ring in the morning at 10am and that it could all be processed quickly. I was encouraged, but still not sure. I rang back again after 15 minutes – is this the number I should ring and will anyone answer on a Monday morning even though it is an out of hours numbers and I had not been able to get through during working hours on the standard number? Yes, of course! I went to bed, relieved that something seemed to be happening. I would ring in the morning and also got someone to start calling the High Commission at 8.30am when it opened.
I woke early Monday morning with a strong sense – Sunil you have to go to the High Commission this morning. But, I said to myself, there is already a lot I have planned to do. The response – you HAVE to go! So I did. I got to the High Commission by 7.45am only to see 100 people in front of me! I asked the man at the front of the queue what time he had got there and was told 5am!
Somehow I managed to get seen at 8.30am and was advised to come back at 10am! Telephoning the numbers we had for the High Commission from 8.30am to 10.30 am produced no response! In between I listened to one of my favourite Bible teachers, Tim Keller on the beauty of God! That certainly helped to get things in perspective! Passport or no passport I could handle it.
When I went back to the desk at 10am, the lady wrote my name on a scrap of paper and said to come back at 4.30pm! No other news- nothing else I could do. I got on the train to return to my meetings. On the train the thought came – had I done everything I could? No, they did not have my contact number in case there was a problem or they needed clarification. So I turned back to see that lady at the desk. 20 minutes later I was there again. Oh, she said, I was thinking it would be useful to have your contact number just in case!
Anyhow, back to work, curtailed meetings with profuse apologies and a return to the High Commission for just before 4.30pm. Welcome to India in the UK! I felt like I had travelled 5,000 miles back to the Subcontinent even though I was in Holborn! No polite queuing – just go to the front of the line and ask what to do! No matter that I had no reference number. I just had to sit and wait! Finally at 5pm- the passport appeared with my OCI! Resolution with only 8 working hours to spare!
Lessons learnt:
1. Don’t necessarily believe a three day turn around with post – especially if it concerns the Indian High Commission!
2. Focus on what you do want and not what you don’t want.
3. Keep in relationship with God and make the peace of God your goal.
4. Keep knocking and searching, being open to what God wants to show you. There are lessons He wants to teach you.
5. Suspend the need to know how it will work out.
6. This verse from the Message Bible is in the context of overall salvation, but I think it also has relevance to how we live day to day. Luke 13:23
“.. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life – to God!- is vigorous and requires your total attention.,”
That also means you may not necessarily get what you want. God wants your focus to be more on Him and trusting that He knows best.
7. I also like this quote from Thoreau, who I don’t necessarily always agree with everything he says, but I think illustrates my experience:
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will live within the licence of a higher order of beings.
What does this experience teach you?
Do you have a similar story of unexpected provision that you feel able to share?
Leave your comments here.
Sunil,
Congrats on getting your passport – did you expect anything else? My wife’s embassy is the same, you must persist more than is normally acceptable!!
I recently had a vexing situation to deal with, the kind where it just seems to drag on and on and won’t give you peace. I live in a military house and we were offered free insulation in June this year which I was very happy to hear as it will obviously keep us warm and help us financially.
One of the conditions was that our loft had to be completely empty. Unfortunately, the previous occupants left a load of rubbish up there and I could not clear it myself, so I phoned the contractors to help. The contractors said it’s not within their remit to clear lofts, so I called our estate manager. The estate manager, whilst being a ‘nice chap’, is not the most proactive person and will only do the minimum required. He said the usual ‘I’ll let you know’.
Two weeks passed and I contacted him again to which he said ‘I’m waiting for an answer from my boss as to who will take responsibility’. I could not help but look on the cynical side and see this as a delaying tactic. At that point I became very busy with the Olympics at work, working 2 days, 2 nights, 1 off so I decided to give up. The date for the installation of the insulation came and went and nobody even called me. The letter also stated that the loft insulation company will not be visiting our area again so if it was not done now, it would never be done. I don’t recall whether I prayed about it but I don’t think I did.
In early October I somehow managed to find the mental fortitude to get the ball rolling again and decided to raise a complaint. A very helpful lady called back and they said that they will clear my loft and arranged for the insulation contractor to come in November. I was delighted that things were happening again.
I waited all day for the contractors to clear my loft and they eventually came at 4pm and unfortunately, the guy who came was alone because his colleague had been called away on an emergency. All he could do was look in the loft and make an assessment of how long it would take and what would be required. Just as he was leaving I asked him when he would come back, my heart sank a little when he said ‘If you’ve not heard anything by Monday call back’, which I saw as another setback.
I called back today and they have made an appointment to clear the loft next Friday, and the insulation to be put in the following Monday. It’s nice to see the end in sight after such a prolonged period of time!!
Situations like this are sometimes confusing though; when we pray and give our problems to God are we supposed to just sit back and do nothing, hoping He will solve everything? Proverbs 3 says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”, but then if I didn’t persist and keep pushing, nothing would’ve happened, so I’ve used my own strength and not Gods to solve this. Or when we pray does God give us the mental strength to push on? Or when we pray, does God ‘make the dots’ behind the scenes and all we have to do is connect them?? Great is the myster of faith!!
Thanks for sharing your personal story, Karl.
It seems to me that so often in life we are looking to a solution to our problems while God has a much bigger agenda. I love this this quote from C.S. Lewis in ‘Mere Christianity‘ in the chapter entitled ‘Counting the Cost’ (p.204-5) that elaborates this. it is worth pondering and reflecting on slowly:
“On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us even through the next 24 hours as ‘decent’ people. If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death.
“That is why we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected) he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along – illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation – he is disappointed. These things he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level; putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us.”
Trust that is an encouragement to press on whatever happens!
It has been interesting to read the posts on here so far which touch on the issue of faith when anger or some other expression of frustration would be far easier (for me at least!). For me the greatest challenge is having faith in God in any situation even when we never see any reward in the short-term and perhaps ever in this life.
Can we trust God regardless of the prospect of any reward or blessing in this life in true faith?
Thanks for your question Andrew.
My response would be to say, where else can we go? Apart from God what other source of hope is there? We have to trust that God is making sense of it all even though we cannot at the present time see or make sense of what it could be.
Also when you say regardless of the prospect of any reward, what exactly do you mean by reward and regardless of any prospect of reward? There is an intellectual way to answer the question, but I am also aware that many struggle with this due to some specific pain and suffering. There is, I believe no water-tight answer to suffering. However, God has provided Christ who has suffered with no answer to his prayers -“My, my God why have you forsaken me?” was part of his final words on the cross (Mark’s Gospel 15:34). I can find enormous strength and comfort from the truth that Jesus chose to trust God regardless of the prospect of any apparent reward or blessing. As we now live on the other side of the cross, we know that God had a much greater purpose and so we hold on to the fact, using Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 4:17 (and he is referring to a life time of suffering!) that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
I hope that is helpful.
Through my experiences, apart from the above, I also learnt that being in the company of people sharing the same faith helps a lot. Their encouragements and testimonies make a lot of difference in our situations and journey in life.
Yes absolutely we so much need the encouragement and support of others.
Quote from Goethe that illustrates the importance of not cheating yourself out of the possibility on the other side of commitment:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”