One of the most critical decisions you’ll ever make is the attitude you embrace in response to undesirable circumstances. While you may not be able to prevent something tragic from happening to you, you can choose how you Respond to what happens to you. You alone have the power to determine the attitude you’ll embrace, and the attitude you choose will either empower you to soar above life’s limitations or suck out of you any remaining hope or resiliency!
The Tragic Tale of Chippy the Parakeet
There was once a little cage-bird named “Chippy”. Chippy was a parakeet who lived a very controlled, predictable life. He felt safe, secure and sheltered from danger. Unfortunately, his predictable life left him totally unprepared for what happened. Chippy the parakeet never saw it coming. One moment he was peacefully perched in his cage and the next he was fighting for his life!
Chippy’s problems began when his owner decided to take a short-cut in cleaning his cage. She was pressed for time so, instead of dismantling the bottom of the cage and changing the soiled paper, she decided to clean Chippy’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. Everything was progressing nicely until the phone rang, and she tried to multi-task and continue cleaning the cage while attempting to answer the phone. I guess in reaching for the phone, she changed the angle of the hose and as she said “Hello”…then, SOPP! Chippy got sucked in.
The bird’s owner gasped, she put down the phone and turned off the vacuum cleaner. She opened up the bag. There was Chippy still alive – but stunned!
Since the bird was covered with dust and grime, she grabbed him and raced into the bathroom and turned on the faucet and held Chippy under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippy was soaked and shivering – she did what any compassionate bird owner would do.
She reached for the hairdryer and blasted him with hot air. Poor Chippy never knew what hit him. A few days after the traumatic ordeal, one of her friends called to see how the bird was doing. “Well,” said his owner, “Chippy doesn’t sing much anymore – he just sits and stares.”
If you’ve lived very long, chances are you can identify with Chippy the Parakeet…life has many ways of sucking us down, washing us up, blowing us over, and stealing our song. You may be the survivor of tragic, painful circumstances that have left you deeply wounded. If somehow, you’ve managed to avoid pain, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, eventually, you’ll join the ranks of the afflicted or disappointed! And when you’re reeling in bewilderment over what’s come your way, my hope is that these words will guide you in embracing a life-giving attitude.
Example vs Non-example
When I lived in the Midwest, I met a man who, like Chippy the Parakeet, had his song stolen by tragedy! Roland (not his actual name) was retired when I got to know him, but to his family, his work ethic was legendary! Though small in stature, he had embodied a passion for work that honored his German heritage! Just 5’ 5” in height, wiry and full of energy. During the day, Roland had worked in one of the big factories in Milwaukee, WI. At night, he was on staff in an up-scale hotel as a bartender and a Maitre d’. He knew how to take care of people and he took great pride in his work!
Roland and his wife Suzanne were frugal people who saved all they could and dreamed of the wonderful day when they could retire and take their hard-earned money and buy a modest home somewhere in the Northwoods where they could enjoy the peace and quiet and engage in some fishing and berry picking when they were in season.
Unfortunately, Roland’s dreams for his Golden years were stolen from him just months after he retired. You see, his beloved Suzanne suddenly became ill from a previously undiagnosed cardiac problem and in a matter of weeks, she died. And when Suzanne died…so did part of Roland! He was crushed, his heart was broken, and he retreated into cynicism and despair. Though his family and friends reached out to him and urged him to re-engage with life, Roland spurned their support and drove everyone away choosing to remain angry, bitter, and alone. And that is how he died! Isolated and alone.
Let me tell you about another man who also happens to be of European
Victor Frankl
ancestry. His name was Viktor Frankl. You may know his name and have an awareness of the content of his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Dr. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Jew, trained in neurology and psychiatry became a prisoner to the Nazis and endured unspeakable cruelty during the Holocaust.
“At the beginning of his ordeal, he was marched into a Gestapo courtroom. His captors had taken away his home and family, his cherished freedom, his possessions, even his watch and wedding ring. They had shaved his head and stripped his clothing off his body. There he stood before the German High Command, under glaring lights being interrogated and falsely accused. He was destitute, a helpless pawn in the hands of brutal, prejudiced, sadistic men. He had nothing! No, that isn’t true. He suddenly realized there was one thing no one could ever take from him – just one. Do you know what it was? Dr. Frankl realized he still had the power to choose his own attitude. No matter what anyone would ever do to him, regardless of what the future held for him, the attitude choice was his to make. Bitterness or forgiveness.
To give up or to go on. Hatred or hope. Determination to endure or the paralysis of self-pity.”[1] He alone would make these decisions!
And THAT was a turning point in his life! (By the way, Frankl was one of the few who survived the unspeakably brutal treatment of the Nazi death camps. Could it be that his positive attitude helped him to stay healthy and enabled him to endure the horrors of the Nazi’s?)
Bitter or Better?
During my missionary training with New Tribes Mission, Ron Hudson, a regional representative for NTM, spoke in one of our student chapel services. He described how, with God’s help, he and his wife had endured some deep trials, one of which was the death of his two teenaged sons in the same automobile accident. That day he used a very simple metaphor to make a profound point. The crux of his message was this: Every human being you meet is similar to a GRAPE. Just as grapes can be made into wine or vinegar, our personal response to adversity will either make us bitter or better. The attitude we embrace in response to what happens to us will either cause us to become sour and acerbic like vinegar or sweet and stimulating like a rich, vintage wine.
Author and pastor Charles Swindoll wrote: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”
Attitude is like a Filter
One afternoon, a Grandpa was taking a nap on his couch. His seven-year-old grandson got some Limburger cheese from the refrigerator and smeared it on his Grandpa’s mustache.
When grandpa woke up, he said, “This room smells bad!” He went to another room and said, “This room smells bad too.” After walking throughout his house, he said, “The whole house smells bad!”
Grandpa decided he needed a breath of fresh air, so he went outside and took a deep breath and concluded, “The whole world stinks!”
That story illustrates how a smelly attitude taints everything in our lives.
Choose Your Color Carefully
I once read the story of a student at Iowa State University who, before the days of student loans, sold magazine subscriptions for additional income.
As he analyzed the market, he determined that a likely customer might be the president of the University.
The student went to his home and was greeted at the door by the president’s wife who was able to resist his sales pitch by saying that her husband already received more magazines than he could possibly read. The student assured her that he understood and turned to leave. It was then the president’s wife saw something she had not noticed before. The student was physically challenged; he walked with a profound limp. She felt bad that she had turned him down, and probably out of a twinge of guilt called out to him and said, “I did not know you were handicapped.” The student responded that his disability was a result of having had polio when he was a child. The woman then said, “My, how being handicapped must color your life.” The young man brightly responded, “It certainly does, but, thank God, I can choose the color!”
The one who shared that story commented: “How indebted we are to those radiant individuals who bring a perspective of hope and life into a difficult situation… Such persons are not born that way but choose to become that way as they pick their attitudes.“
God’s Wisdom for Turbulent Times
As a Biblically informed Christian, you can find God’s wisdom for living in this broken world. A Heavenly perspective will empower you to choose beliefs that lead to a life-giving attitude.
- God urges us to expect trouble as we live in this broken world among people who are rebelling against Him. (Job 5:7, John 16:33, Matthew 10:24-31, Matthew 24:7-13, 1 Peter 4:12-19)
- God reassures us that we can be hopeful in hard times because our best days await us when we leave this world and enter His Eternal Kingdom. (Romans 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
- Reverence for God reminds us that we lack the capacity to fully comprehend what He, the Potter, is doing with us, the Clay. (Proverbs 9:10, Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:9, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6, Romans 9:21)
- God uses adversity and suffering to weaken our reliance upon ourselves and increase our knowledge of Himself. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
- God works through the undesirable circumstances He allows or causes to impact our lives to make us more fruitful for the Gospel and more effective in bringing comfort to others. (John 15:1-2, John 15:8, John 15:16, Philippians 1:12-26, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
- God’s goals for us are “out of this world” and He uses adversity to refine us and prepare us for our future inheritance. (Job 23:10-12, Romans 8:28-32, 1 Peter 1:6-7)
My friend, what happens to you is significant.
But more significant still is your response to what happens in your life.
There are many things in life that you can’t control, but please remember, that no matter what happens, you can control your attitude.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human 
freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”[2]
[1] Charles L. Swindoll, “Strengthening Your Grip”
[2] Viktor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”