Our house has been in sickness mode this past week. Our youngest family member came down with the flu. She is already feeling better and, thankfully, the rest of the family has remained well so far. I have to admit that I am fascinated by the spread of the flu this season. My daughter’s teacher informed me that over 60% of the kids in her class were out with the flu last week! But I am even more fascinated by the spread of the hysteria this year.
While I was sitting in the pharmacy waiting for a prescription of Tamiflu, I called my Mother-in-Law to give her an updated on her grandkid. I also gave her some good natured ribbing on raising a son who was afraid of germs. (That’s all I’ll say about that.) As soon as I hung up, an older man also waiting for medicine fussed at me telling me that Swine flu was serious and people were dying from it.
I couldn’t get mad at him because I was the one rudely talking on my cell phone in a public place, but I calmly explained that yes I was very concerned about my daughter and the rest of the family but that he didn’t know my family. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit intervened and kept me from saying too much more! But that didn’t stop an entire conversation about the spread of flu, the difficulty in getting flu shots, schools closing because too many kids are sick, people dying from it and so on. And most of the other people coming and going in the pharmacy took part in this conversation too.
It seems as if you can’t make it through a day without hearing about the flu. It’s on the TV, internet, in the paper and on the lips of friends, family and strangers. This has gotten me thinking. What if we talked about the Good News as much as we talked about the Swine Flu? Would we treat others differently? Would we see things differently? Would our world be transformed?
Too often we treat the Good News just like the flu. We hide it and keep it to ourselves. We isolate ourselves from the world, staying in a safe zone surrounded by people who think like we do. Instead of seeking out opportunities to share it, we pretend that we don’t know it. We are like Peter on the night of Jesus’ crucifixion—I swear I don’t know that man! I know that I have been guilty of far too many missed opportunities. I’ve been too busy to invest the time, too tired to care or just too scared of being ridiculed.
Sometimes we even try to protect ourselves from the Good News. We limit our study of scripture to “feel good” verses and don’t grapple with the challenging text. We are quick to assume that those who criticize us are wrong and we respond without asking God for His opinion first. We pick and choose church events, attending the ones that won’t challenge us to change and grow. Or if we do feel challenged, instead of exploring what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us, we put up walls of defense.
I will readily admit that I am terrified of being too close to God. I am scared of the things He might ask me to do. I have often said that “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable” but it is so hard to truly live that out. This morning in my Bible study I read Hebrews 6:7-8: “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.” I have copied this scripture and stuck it on the refrigerator and I will pray every day that I am producing a crop, not thorns and thistles.
By all means, don’t leave your house if you have a fever, wash your hands often and cough into your sleeve. But don’t treat the love of God the same way. Those of us who have been touched by God have been given an awesome gift. Why are we so afraid to share that gift with the world?
