Is your life worth $200? This was what an aviation industry guru asked when commenting on an incident involving a budget airline this week. What a great question!
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Probably not, but many of us act as though our lives are worth just that much.
Now, most of us love bargains. We look out for signs announcing garage sales, look through the weekly catalogues for the latest deals and scour through the clearance racks at our favourite shops. When hear about our friends flying to some tropical paradise in the middle of winter (while the rest of us freeze our tootsies off) for the price of a Happy Meal, we tell ourselves next year that’s going to be us. So we look around and sure enough, we find flights on a budget carrier and Bob’s your uncle. Caveat emptor!
“Australians regrettably think with their pocket and not their head,” warns Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman and aviation expert Neil Hansford. Apparently, we would rather fly with a carrier that has a lower safety record, than cough up the difference for a flight with a carrier with a better safety record. We risk the pain of “later” for the happiness of “now”.
In a sense, these are issues that the Bible addresses. If there really was a Creator who held us all accountable, wouldn’t you want to do the due diligence now rather than cop it later? Or is it really worth the (perceived) fun in this life for what we may lose in the next?
When we talk about “putting our trust in Jesus” or “believing in Jesus” it is very much like putting our trust or believing in an airline. We trust that they can do what they say and get us safely to where we need to go. While many would say that the Gospels are full of pie in the sky, there are many professional historians who would disagree.
It is the record of a man who said many extraordinary things, one of which was that there is life after death. How much would you pay to make sure you had the best of the next world? (Mark 8:36-37)
