By DR. GREGORY S. NEAL
Special Contributor
A few months ago, I was flying to Chicago to teach a course at one of our United Methodist colleges and experienced the rare luxury of being upgraded to first class. This put me near the front of the aircraft, close enough to follow the operational patter of the flight attendants.

Just after the gate agent had closed the plane's door, the senior flight attendant announced: "Forward cabin and galley doors prepared and cross-checked!" Just afterward, another flight attendant echoed over the plane's intercom system: "Tail galley door prepared and cross-checked!"

I chuckled and, making the sign of the cross, I said: "Passenger, prepared and cross-checked!" The flight attendant who would be doing the seat belt and oxygen mask routine began laughing. Similarly, the passenger seated in the window seat to my right saw me, grinned, crossed himself as well, and then repeated my words. Suddenly, other passengers to my left and behind me did the same. Indeed, the words "Passenger, prepared and crosschecked" echoed down the rows of the plane, accompanied by laughter and a sudden lessening of tension.

I grinned and winked at the flight attendant, and her own smile became as wide as her face.

"Passenger, prepared and crosschecked!" That's us!

We're called to prepare for this life and for the next by checking ourselves with the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Apart from Jesus – apart from the love of God that Christ exemplified for us in his life, death and resurrection – we cannot possibly be "prepared" for this life or for the next.

Our calling, as Christians, is to continually check ourselves into the love of God; we're called to turn to and depend upon the gracious self-sacrifice of Jesus, who lived and died for us that we might never fear sin and death. In other words, every element in our lives is supposed to be "cross-checked."

In 2012, as our society and our church faces many challenges, I pray that we all will be more deeply checked into God's grace. Change in these difficult days calls for vision and courage, patience and faith, and all of these can be found in the cross.

As we face the future, let us also face the cross and share the love of God with all – yes, even with our sisters and brothers in the church with whom we may disagree. Let us all check ourselves with the gracious, self-sacrificing love of Jesus.