When The Cat Hits The Fan

Ecclesiastes 4:10-12

‘For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.’ 

My engineering lecturer used to tell this story at the beginning of his first year series on mechanics. Before becoming an academic, he had worked for Rolls Royce making jet engines. The procedure for testing the robustness of an engine was to fire frozen chickens out of a cannon into the engine. They’d been testing all morning and had stopped for lunch. When they came back, they started the cannon up again, and the very first chicken caused catastrophic failure in the engine. This puzzled the engineers, so they went back to check the slow-mo footage. To their astonishment, they saw a surprised looking cat flying out of the cannon, its claws grasped firmly around the chicken. The poor creature had smelled the chicken, crawled into the cannon for a bit of lunch and got a nasty surprise.

Doesn’t life just feel like that sometimes! One minute you’re quietly eating your chicken, feeling pretty good about life and the next, BAM, you find yourself flying into a jet engine. 2019 was a cat hitting the fan year for me. Like the man in today’s verse from Ecclesiastes, I fell flat on my face. Fortunately, I was part of the Gas Street family and I had a bunch of people around me, who picked me up and put me back on my feet.

It’s so important that we invest in deep friendships and relationships. Why? Because when we fall, we need people to pick us up. When we’re cold, we need friends to keep us warm. When we’re attacked, we need backup to defend us. People need people. After all, you never know when the cat’s about to hit the fan. 

Prayer- Thank you Father that you have given us a wonderful church family. Please help me to invest in deep friendships.