We have raised chickens for several years now. There is nothing better than farm fresh eggs, if you like eggs. But, naturally living in the country we have numerous varmints that frequent our ponderosa. So we have went through several chickens over the years. We are currently down to one chicken thanks to a recent critter getting the rest of them. We aren’t sure what it is, but we intend to figure it out soon. This one chicken refuses to go back into the pen that they have been in for a long time. That tells me that something traumatic transpired in that pen recently that caused her little chicken friends to be no more. So this one chicken, the lone survivor, the winner of the survival of the fittest chicken competition on the Cudd ranch, is now a loner that just roams around everywhere. It’s really kinda sad, but it just rocks the single chic life like it’s no big deal.
I got up a few mornings ago to work out. I went out to the garage to get on the elliptical. I did this just as I have done countless times before. I got the podcast I was listening to brought up on my phone. I stepped on the elliptical. After step number 1, I found out that our lone chicken had roosted in the garage on a shelf about 2 feet from my head. I had no idea it was there. It didn’t make a peep. Didn’t flinch a bit. Until I took that first step. Then it went to squawking and yelping and flapping its wings (insert whatever chicken noises you feel are appropriate right now). You can just imagine the fear this would inflict on a person that did not expect this. I just about fell off the elliptical before I could not so gracefully get off of it. When I freaked out the chicken came down off the shelf. I immediately went and opened the door that leads to outside and chased that chicken around the garage until I got her out of there. After I recovered a little bit and my heart rate dropped back down to a safe level, I got back on the elliptical to continue my workout.
I say that to say this, as Christians we have to expect the unexpected. If you haven’t seen 2020 as an example of this, I’m not sure where you are living, but it’s not around here. 2020 has brought us many challenges. The most notable one is the coronavirus. It’s not just the virus itself, but everything it has changed. There have been so many plans changed and ways of life altered. So many people have what they feel is the right solution or theory on all of this and they want to tell the real professionals how to do their job. There have been health experts and data collection experts and all sorts of other kinds of experts that have come out of the woodworks during this time (sense the sarcasm?). But, the reality is that no one really knows for sure. If there is one thing that I have learned during this whole ordeal, it is that I don’t know. I get asked all the time about all sorts of things concerning school and sports and numbers and statistics and whatever else there is to look at. My common answer is “I don’t know”. I don’t know what the right answers are. I’m not going to try and outdo the health experts. They obviously know way more about this than a high school principal and baseball coach does. I’m not going to criticize the people that collect and report data for how they do their job. I don’t know any more about how they do their job than they know about being a principal or baseball coach. All I can do is pray for those people and pray that God will give them the knowledge and wisdom to lead us in the right direction concerning this situation. So that leads me back to “I don’t know”. None of us have all the answers. We just have to do the best we can to navigate through this unprecedented time.
As the last few months have unfolded and we have had some awkward and uncomfortable times, it reminds me of our Christian walk. As a Christian, our most uncomfortable times are usually when we grow the most. That is when we are challenged. We can either rise up and meet that challenge head on, or we can stay comfortable and not grow. During the last few months we have had information thrown at us from so many directions. You can look at any article with any take on it and then turn around and find the opposite take within a matter of minutes. We have heard different information on how you can contract Covid-19 and how it spreads and if masks work or they don’t work. We have heard different ideas about if certain tests work or don’t work and if people can get it twice or not. There are so many things out there that we don’t know what to believe. Being a Christian is similar to this. We can get caught up in what someone else says is acceptable or accurate or we can stick with what they Bible says. II Peter 2:17-18 says, “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be he glory both now and forever! Amen.”
We have to expect the unexpected. We have to know that there will be people that will try to challenge or rattle our faith. We have to be prepared to defend our faith. There are always going to be people that want to pull us down. During challenging times are when we can grow. The last few months are no different. We have a chance to be a positive influence on people by how we treat others. We can get caught up in the complaining and the negativity that a time like this can bring. We can also use this time to be an example to others of how to handle this situation. It doesn’t always have to be with words either. Proverbs 17:27-28 says, “A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered. Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.” This isn’t always easy to do. It is easy to be critical of how someone handles a situation or to throw out our opinion of things and just assume that it is right. We have seen that a lot the last several months during the situation we have been in. We see here that is not always the best way to go about it though. We learn more when we are silent. When we do that we then gain more knowledge and have more in common with those that are wise. Perhaps then when we do speak, it has meaning.
My challenge this week is to try to be more silent. Not silent in a way that we sit back and do nothing. But, in a way that we sit back and try to learn. We try to gain knowledge from those that are wise. We try to learn from those that we look up to that live by the Word of God. When faced with a sense of uncomfortableness, we need to take that as an opportunity to grow. We need to face that challenge head on and with the attitude that we will make the most of this situation. I also challenge everyone this week to look for an opportunity to share Jesus with someone. This happens when we expect the unexpected. We should look for those opportunities to be a true disciple of Christ. I truly believe those opportunities are there a lot and we just don’t always notice them. I see them a lot of times after the fact. The reason I didn’t see them in the present was because I wasn’t truly looking for them (kinda like a roosting chicken in your garage). We can all get better at that. Take advantage of the opportunities we are given to share the Gospel and always expect the unexpected, even if it’s a sneaky little chicken!