God's Cabin Crew

The numerous opportunites to fly as an MK along with my dream to become an airline pilot as a teenager makes me interested when anything airline or aviation-related appears in the news. Yesterday's collision at Haneda Airport will go down in history as the consequences of human error or miscommunication in Air Traffic Control. However, I don't want to focus on the topic of "miscommunication." Rather, the 12 member crew (2 pilots and 10 flight attendants) strike me as heroes. People were sliding down the escape shoots while both engines were errupting in flames. Smoke and heat from the explosion was already filling the cabin, and you could even see flashlights being used to show people to the exits. Only three of the eight emergency exits could be used, yet somehow all 367 passengers and cabin crew escaped from the aircraft in 18 minutes before the fuselage itself was engulfed in flames two minutes after the fuselage was engulfed in flames. New York Times and other oversees media are calling it a miracle and praising Japan Airlines' training of its cabin crew and protocol. 

English Media: "Miracle Escape"

Since I have the flow of the In-flight Safety Videos practically memorized, I usually don't pay too much attention. I may even haphazardly think, "Will all this stuff really work if we make an emergency landing somewhere?" How apathetic of me! If those flight attendants and pilots had never taken their training for emergency situations seriously, there would have been a huge death toll on the JAL flight. The only thing passengers could see out the windows was red and smoke... but the crew overcame the chaos and panic, guiding everyone to safety. 

This all reminded of God's Cabin Crew. Who's that? Christians are God's Cabin Crew. We're supposed to be guiding passengers to safety before it's too late and the flames engulf them in eternal death. The task is daunting, but God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7) The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), and it works every time. Some passengers may doubt the success of emergency protocol when they watch the In-flight Safety Video. After all, it will only matter in the "unlikely event of an evacuation." Likewise, many of our friends or family have heard the Gospel from us several times, but they will not accept it. They put it off because well... eternal death seems like "an unlikely event." Yet, actually choosing where to spend eternity is a "likely event." Sometimes it takes one incident to trigger a change in their receptivity towards the Gospel. Even if a passgenger didn't take those In-flight Safety Videos seriously, he would have to if he was flying on yesterday's flight. We may witness several times to somebody and think that we are wasting our time. However, when the time comes our efforts will be worth it. They need to be reminded of the Bible's In-flight Safety Video, the Gospel, as often as they can for when that "emergency landing" happens. 

We as Christians have the responsibility to take our jobs as God's Cabin Crew seriously. We don't do it because we are employees with a salary. We do it because of the mandate Christ gave us in the Great Commission. It's the least we can do to repay His priceless gift to us. We have to take our training as seriously as that Cabin Crew did. Local churches have to train their believers with protocol like Japan Airlines. Christians, therefore, must be equipped and ready at all times to share the Gospel. We don't know when the flames of death will engulf the aircraft our passengers fly in. Our passengers may silently ridicule the In-flight Safety Video every time they hear it. They may want to enjoy a comfortable flight without being reminded of death or eternity. Actually, there were people like that in Noah's day...

Matthew 24:36-39 (Genesis 6-7)

The people in Noah's day kept living their comfortable lives, never caring too much for the Ark that Noah was building nor the message that he preached (2 Peter 2:5). When the Great Flood came, they took it all seriously... but it was too late for them. 

Hebrews 11:7

It required a great deal of faith for Noah to build the Ark. We have been saved by faith. Our faith must remain strong as we cling to the power of the Gospel to save others. Imagine the grave faces of the crew members in the last few minutes before the aircraft touches down as they sit straped to their seats in front of the emergency exits ready for action if something goes wrong. They have faith in all their, checklists, manuals, and training. So should we.

2 Peter 3

In the end times, people will mock, as they already do now, the Bible and the Lord's ability to keep the promises in His Word. They will forget the power of God's spoken Word at the time of creation. They will forget about the Great Flood. However, Peter admonishes his Jewish Christian readers to not become ignorant like that. God is suspending coming judgement because He is longsuffering and yearns for all people to be saved. If we, God's Cabin Crew, become apathetic and let our guard down towards the urgency of "time," we won't be successful like the Japan Airlines cabin crew. There will surely be a death toll when the day of the Lord comes as "a thief in the night." (verse 10) 

We have to keep our minds in the game. What if a flight attendant on an American carrier were chatting with the other flight attendant across the aisle about what to eat for dinner when they got to their hotel as the aircraft was in its final landing position (I've never seen this happen, just imagining it could😂). If that flight collided with another aircraft on the runway like yesterday, there would be a death toll because those flight attendants weren't ready for action. 

"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,"  2 Peter 3:11-12

In case you'd like to review Japan Airlines' In-flight Safety Video 😏