01 March 2014

Qantas in the air, or not

Another Qantas landing by bobmendo
Another Qantas landing, a photo by bobmendo on Flickr.
A few hours ago, in the midst of a week of angst with 5,000 jobs ready to be axed by Qantas, when things couldn't get any worse for the national air carrier, things got worse.

The wing tips of a Qantas superjumbo A380 and a Qantas Boeing 747 struck around 4pm AEST as the planes were being towed out of a hangar. No passengers were on board.

The damage was substantial enough to force the cancellation of flight QF94 to Melbourne and QF16 to Brisbane. Hundreds are stranded in LA for another night.

When things can't get any worse, seems like they can get worse.

The 5,000 people who will lose their jobs and the terminals which will close as Qantas tries to save two billion dollars the next three years would have been bad enough. Today the stock exchange barely even noticed when Qantas shares sold one point lower. (Open 1.15; High 1.182; Low 1.145; Vol 23.467M) But lots of people will notice the bad luck of the Australian national airline this week. And especially those immediately affected either in LA or in Brisbane and Melbourne who will not notice the news and go out to get their mates in the morning.

Qantas needs more than Pollyanna's "The Glad Game" to get through next week. When things are going from bad to worse, what do you do? What should anyone do?

Honestly I've thought about this very thing this week, when Moses (the Bible one) at 80 years old, is told by the Almighty, out of the burning bush, to go to Pharaoh and get the Jewish people out of Egypt. They have been in a detention centre for about 400 years and Moses is the appointed deliverer.

The Jews have been slaves for centuries and when Moses shows up and informs Pharaoh the words he's just heard from God, Pharaoh scorns the words, knocks back the idea of a weekend retreat for the Hebrews, and hardens his heart.

Then Pharaoh turns and issues a new edict, and assigns the Hebrews not only to make bricks and build store cities for him, but also to gather their own straw. Moses shows up to deliver the Jews and ends up making things worse. (This is found in Exodus chapter 5)

So what do the Jewish people do? And what does Moses do? They both complain and things actually do go from bad to worse. For a while.

But after nearly a year, and 10 plagues, God Himself delivers the Hebrews from slavery and leads them towards their future home in Israel. No airplanes. No crashes. Just 3 million wandering Jews out into the wilderness.

The season of 'bad to worse' really does continue, and in fact, in every generation we have some 'bad to worse' times, but there will be a time when that's over. It's on the basis of eternity, when all crashes cease, when enemies beat their swords into plowshares, when Messiah puts his foot down on the Mount of Olives and runs the world, the way it's supposed to be. That's when bad to worse ends.

When Messiah Yeshua is revealed, and we are with him in glory, what a day of rejoicing that will be. Bad to worse will become all good and great and best. No matter what happens with your job or career, with your airplane travels or being stuck in another country, when Messiah Yeshua returns to earth, and only then, will everything be all good.

Please be ready.
Please pray and ask God to be Lord of your life.
It will get you through today. And tomorrow. No matter what comes.
 

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