Sheltered until now

For much of my life, I have been raised in a nurturing environment where I felt that everyone loved me or was looking out for me (except my bully-type peers and childhood nemeses). From my nuclear family unit to my extended family; my church family to the teachers in my Anglican preparatory and high school. (For more on the warm fuzzy feelings I have towards my spiritual background see my previous post on Christian milieu and why people believe? and How I became 7th-day Adventist? Part 1: The Context).

Even when I began my first summer, part-time and full-time jobs, I felt blessed to have bosses and co-workers that seemed supportive of me. I have never felt what it was like to work in an environment hostile towards me, where I have to be watching out for my own interests and insuring myself against the possibility that I may make a mistake that will be catastrophic for my career or future opportunities.

It is only since I have been here in Canada, that I realise that my current reality and future reality is the not the same as before. My eyes are no open to a reality that I had never seen before. I now recognise how sheltered I have been. I now see a global climate (political, social and economic) that is potentially hostile towards me, in which I now must tread with caution. This brings these words of Jesus to mind:

"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." (Matthew 10: 16, New International Version)