It’s Contagious! COVID-19 & Your Life!
WisdomWalks Principle: Make Your Life Worth Catching
By Dan Britton and Jimmy Page • The Fellowship of Christian Athletes • Kansas City, Missouri
and had no idea it foreshadowed truth that is 100X more powerful now. Thanks guys.
con·ta·gious [ kən táyjəss ] adjective
- Capable of being transmitted or spread from one person to another by direct or indirect contact. Easily spread, passed on, or caught.
- Synonym—Infectious.
My wife can be a little obsessed with germs. (I think that’s safe to say, because she’d agree wholeheartedly with me.) She makes everyone in the family use antibacterial soaps. She packs a hand-sanitizer in the kids’ lunch boxes for school. And when we travel by plane, she wipes down the seat, armrests, seat belt, call buttons, and even the tray table. I must admit, even though I’m embarrassed by her actions sometimes, I very rarely get sick when I travel now.
It’s amazing to me just how far we’ve come since the days when moms would make sure that if one of the kids got the chickenpox, then the rest would get put in the same room to get it at the same time. If one of our kids got it now, my wife would set up a quarantine room and vacuum-seal the door. You can just imagine what my wife did when news of the H1N1 virus hit, and we were warned of a worldwide pandemic …. And she wasn’t the only one; the whole world got crazy in an effort to prevent the Swine Flu.
Bad news spreads like a plague.
It always brings others down and starts a cycle of negativity.
But everything about us is contagious, and that’s true in the spiritual life, as well. God made us to be contagious! How you live will be caught by others—for better or for worse. Others will catch your emotions, your attitudes, and even your way of thinking, because it usually surfaces in your words and your entire approach to life.
The apostle Paul had a lot to say about contagious faith. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that springfrom the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the Word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this faith is bearingfruit and growing. (Colossians 1:3–6)
Good news spreads! The faith and love of the saints in Colosse, like that of those in Rome (Romans 1:8) was highly contagious. It was literally being reported around the world. Faith in Jesus and the Gospel of salvation by grace was bearing fruit and spreading. When people hear about the presence of God in your life and see the difference with their own eyes, that’s a powerfully attractive combination! What you believe can be caught. Faith and belief in God, when consistently lived out in your actions and words, can be passed on from friend to friend, family to family, and generation to generation.
Bad news paralyzes! Bad news spreads like a plague. It always brings others down and starts a cycle of negativity. In Numbers 13, fear swept through the entire nation of Israel as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. Two young scouts, Joshua and Caleb, gave a good report, but the other ten spread doubt and fear all through the camp. As a result, the entire community grumbled against Moses and Aaron and even suggested that they should go back to slavery in Egypt—all because a little bad news paralyzed them!
Bad behavior breeds! In 1 Corinthians 5 the church was a mess. They were engaging in immoral behavior and even bragging about it. So what did Paul do? He told them to cut it out! He said their sinful behavior was spreading like a little yeast through a batch of dough. He told believers to have nothing to do with believers engaged in these behaviors because they themselves might be corrupted. Thankfully, God gave us a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual immune system. And the healthier we keep that immune system, the more capable we are to fight off the bad “viruses” we encounter. What are you doing to boost your own personal immune system spiritually so you don’t “catch” all the sick stuff you may encounter?
Your life is contagious—one way or the other. What will you pass on to others?
This is an excerpt from “WisdomWalks” – 40 Life Principles for a Significant and Meaningful Journey published by Summerside Press, Minneapolis, MN 55438. summersidepress.com Used by permission.
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