I hope this newsletter brings you hope and not pain.  I know what it's like to lose friends in plane crashes and write with all sympathy if you've gone through a heart-breaking loss in your life.  If I hit a raw nerve, I hope you will accept my apology and forgive my bluntness. Chris.

At a recent aviation safety seminar, the presenter talked about the Fed Ex MD11 crash in Narita last year.  He made the blunt statement that in the space of less than a minute two pilots went from everyday, routine life to dead.  They were on a normal approach at the end of a normal flight and then all of a sudden, tragically, everything changed.  A chilling comment isn't it?

Every time I hear of a plane crash it gets me thinking.  The recent accident at Bankstown was no exception.  It was so sad to hear pilot Andrew Wilson's final radio transmissions from just moments before the crash.

For me, these sorts of things are big reality checks.  They confront me with the fact that accidents do happen and life can so quickly be lost.  This is not only true when we're on an aeroplane or doing something stereotypically dangerous like bungee jumping.  At any moment, suddenly and unexpectedly, our time could be up, just like that.

Reality checks are healthy though.  They re-focus us.  A plane crash hits home the seriousness, and permanence of death but it can also remind us of the hope in Jesus that we can respond with. 

But now, this is what the Lord says - he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

The thought of death need not bring you fear.  Jesus died, He knows what that's like.  His friends died, He knows what that's like too.  He's felt the pain of loss.  He knows that it is immensely painful.  But Jesus offers even more than understanding and sympathy.  Jesus is the only one who provides a guaranteed freedom from death.   He's the only way to not fear death. He has given us a way out.  Words can't describe how phenomenal this is.  Meditate on it for the rest of your life!

I pray that this reality check will change those areas in us that need attention; how we conduct ourselves, how we treat others, how we prioritise.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! (the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort) In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3 (plus a bit of 2 Cor 1:3 :-)

Your bro in Him,