Have you ever noticed how many products there are now that are designed to help keep us from getting sick?  There are zinc drops, echinacea pills, vitamins and a whole army of pharmaceuticals to employ at the first sign of a sniffle or sneeze.  If you take them….

A couple of weeks ago I caught a virus – I’m talkin’ 50’s B movie killer bug that caused my body epic mayhem; cough, congestion, sinus pain, aches…..all from a little invisible freeloader that was just doing its thing.  And I did what one usually does upon getting sick; I tried to figure out how I picked it up!  But after drawing a blank (no one I knew had been recently sick) I just struck it up to a germy shopping cart and threw on another sweatshirt before burrowing down into my sick bed.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just stay in bed and away from the world until I was completely well, but I certainly didn’t want to share it with anyone else, so I’ve used more hand sanitizer in the past two weeks than probably the entire past year and tried to stay as far as possible from poor, unsuspecting well people!

But all this talk of spreading germs has me thinking about what it means to be contagious….

Have you ever walked into a room where everyone was already laughing and you found yourself smiling, maybe even laughing along even though you had no idea what’s going on?  Just try to keep a straight face when your baby is giggling or when you download one of those viral funny animal videos.  Laughter truly is contagious!

So are other things like…..attitudes….habits….loyalty….kindness….forgiveness….

We don’t tend to think of those things being contagious, but I think they are.  As long as we are honestly and authentically living them out with pride and passion, I believe people not only notice, but they even may become “infected!”  There’s nothing like watching a true act of kindness to make us take stock of our own actions and opportunities to be kind.  Likewise, when we’re around positive people, it’s easier to focus on what’s going right in our day rather than what we’re lacking.  I could go on, but I think you get the idea….

Truth is, we all carry around “contagions” that will affect other people, whether for better or worse.  And realizing that, I really want to be a positive “bug” to those around me rather than a stubborn freeloader who selfishly takes and leaves nothing in return.

There’s a Proverb that comes to mind when thinking about our influence on others:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  Proverbs 27:17

We are influenced every day by the people around us, and we will never know how our actions may impact others.  So, I guess we’re all contagious in one way or another, but we actually have the choice in what we spread.  We really can make a difference, just in the way we live our daily lives.  And if I am going to pass something on to those around me, well….I for one want to leave behind “good germs” as God’s healing love shines through me.   

So that’s that….I’m going to try to be infectious.  How about you? =)