Enforced Integrity

June 12, 2017

There's nothing like a day on the road to help me clear my mind and reorder my priorities. I left this morning at 5:30 am, and got home at 8:30 pm. In between was a trip through Toronto traffic, which is bad enough without the construction added, to Peterborough to meet a friend and deliver the old motorcycle he paid for nearly a year ago. Fortunately, it's a project bike, and he wasn't in a hurry. He has the misfortune however, of dealing with someone who's conscience wouldn't let him fudge the price for tax purposes. For his sake, I wanted to, but in the end, couldn't bring myself to do it. Chalk one up for faith and integrity. Neither come naturally to me, so it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit.

I've never had to take a motor vehicle through customs before, and hope I don't have to ever again. I took the bike in as a repair job and possible sale. If my friend after seeing it, decided he didn't want it or didn't want to go through all the customs hassle, I could then just haul it back home - no problem. That was probably a mistake. Had it gone in as a straight sale, they would have inspected it, checked to make sure the papers matched the numbers on the bike, and I probably would have had to pay duty on it all. As it is, it's in Canada under a temporary ticket that expires in a month. If I don't bring the bike back or they don't get papers of transfer, both of us will be in trouble. So now he has to show up at a customs check point with the bike and the papers I'll be sending him; a bit more bother that we could have avoided. Oh well, live and learn.

I am thankful tonight for the time I had to pray and listen to "The Pursuit of God," by A.W. Tozer, and for customs agents and paperwork that helps my faith keep its integrity. It would have been easy to cheat the system had those systems not been in place. They were, and I thank God tonight for them.