Feeling Chippie

“We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair”

2 Corinthians 4:8

If you are like me at all you have your routine, little daily rituals that you keep knowingly or not. Most everyone follows some schedule even if it’s not written down. For the most part our lives are pretty predictable if you followed any of us around for a week. Monday we do this, Tuesday that, and so on through out the week, and then on the weekends we look forward to certain things we hope to do. At least that is how life was before the COVID-19 global pandemic. Then in an instant, everything changed. Life as we knew it came to a halt and things we never expected happened leaving us all saying, “I Didn’t See That Coming.”

It was Max Lucado in his book, “The Eye Of The Storm” who used those words, “I Didn’t See That Coming” in sharing a story about a parakeet named Chippie. "Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming.” "One second, he's peacefully perched in his cage. The next he's sucked in, washed up, and blown over. The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage.

"Then the phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She barely said 'hello' when ssssssopp! Chippie got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie---still alive, but stunned. Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, and turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under running water.

"And then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do---she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air. Poor Chippie never knew what hit him. A few days after the trauma, the reporter who'd initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the bird was recovering. 'Well,' she replied, 'Chippie doesn't sing much anymore, he just sits there and stares.' "

Maybe you can relate today, maybe that’s how you feel since the coronavirus hit. Still, all these weeks later you are still saying to yourself, “I didnt see that coming” and like Chippie the parakeet in our story you feel like you have been sucked in, washed up and blown over” and the song you used to sing is fading and you find yourself changing, on most days now you just sit and stare.

Let God put a new song in your heart today! Psalm 40:3 reminds us, “He has put a new song in my mouth-- Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.”  The song in my heart today is by Hillsong United and it’s titled, “Another in the fire”. I love the chorus which I will leave for you today… sing it if you know it…

There was another in the fire
Standing next to me
There was another in the waters
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
Of how I've been set free
There is a cross that bears the burden
Where another died for me
There is another in the fire...

"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord"

Ephesians 5:19

I LOVE YOU!

Here are the entire lyrics below. 
Another In The Fire
By Hillsong United

There's a grace when the heart is under fire
Another way when the walls are closing in
And when I look at the space between
Where I used to be and this reckoning
I know I will never be alone

There was another in the fire
Standing next to me
There was another in the waters
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
Of how I've been set free
There is a cross that bears the burden
Where another died for me
There is another in the fire

All my debt left for dead beneath the waters
I'm no longer a slave to my sin anymore
And should I fall in the space between
What remains of me and this reckoning
Either way I won't bow to the things of this world
And I know I will never be alone

There is another in the fire
Standing next to me
There is another in the fire…