On taking off from Brisbane the previous Thursday, God reminded me again that safety is not a cheap blessing; it's not an automatic. Hebrews 1:3 says that the Son sustains "all things by his powerful word" - including our lives and breath. Should he choose to stop sustaining, we'd all know it immediately, drastically.
So this all prompted me to ask God's gracious granting of safety, because it would of course be nice to make it to Steve's brother's wedding. But then that took me to think through Philippians 1:21, where Paul says that for him, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain". And whether I can say that. Quite frankly, my sense of anticipation about heaven remains a disproportionately-underdeveloped part of my Christian walk. So it was a good opportunity to seek to affirm this verse, to let God know I want to love Jesus so dearly that I hang out more than anything to be with him forever, and to make me more and more prepared for this, more and more ready to drop everything on earth - not by resignation or grudge - but to willingly and delightedly fling it away if only in the next moment I might be with Jesus forever.
...But because this only describes me some small portion of the time, please pray for me and I for you that it won't sound 'suss' or silly or out of this world, but the most real and right thing in the world for all of us.
On landing back in Brisbane, as the VB lady did her thing telling us to remain seated etc, something else she said caught my attention. She said not only is smoking bad for you, they were also re-fuelling the aircraft, and so smoking was strictly prohibited both on the tarmac and in the terminal. I was bemused that what used to be so politically correct (smoking) now isn't, and what was so politically incorrect (daring to tell someone else what is bad or good for them), has now became (daringly) ok. Until of course you try to tell a flight attendant that not submitting to Jesus as Lord is bad for you...
Indeed, evangelism in a post-modern world is tricky! Navigating a path down the lines of courage (Eph 6:19) and clarity (Col 4:4), with gentleness and respect (1 Pet 3:15) is hard. No wonder it takes both prayer (Col 4:2) and preparation (1 Pet 3:15)! So here's an encouragement towards these things too...
Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6
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