Contagious

“I know how eager you are to give. And I have proudly told the Lord’s followers in Macedonia that you…have been ready for a whole year. Now your desire to give has made them want to give.” 2 Corinthians 9:2

A friend of mine has a brand new baby. She also has a cold today. Her baby came down with it yesterday and now Mom has caught the same cold from her little on. Contagious! I was thinking of paying a visit but I might wait till both mom and baby are over their sniffles. (I’m kidding; I can’t wait to see her newborn again.)

I’m sure Mom would rather have not caught the cold. But that’s the thing about contagions; we don’t try. They just get transmitted. We may try to prevent the little germs by disinfecting and staying away from the one with the bug, but we seldom walk around trying to get a cold. (I take that back, there were many times in school I may have tried to get sick the day before a test I had forgotten about.)

How often do we hear, “Don’t worry, I’m not contagious” after someone coughs or sneezes? That’s encouraging, seeing that a sneeze propels molecules into the air at approximately 60 mph. Wouldn’t it be great if there were “smart” germs? The infected party could sneeze one their children and suddenly they would stop acting like two-year olds. 

Or what if there was a “kindness” virus. Congress is in session and the distinguished gentleman from Wherever is screaming at the distinguished woman from the Opposite Side of the Fence. Before you know it the entire House is in fisticuffs. But, in come the posse infected with kindness, coughing up a storm. The air is filled with the microbes invading the combatants and within moments people are serving tea to each other.

Yes, what if…? But, if there are not kindness “germs” we can spread, there are attitudes impressively contagious. Paul told people in Macedonia about the Corinthians desire to give money to the poor. They had even been waiting a whole year until someone could pick up their gift. Paul says that the Corinthians’ desire to give inspired others to do the same.

Every action we take has the potential of duplicating itself. Like the passing on of a cold, those who hang out around others infected with positive attitudes inevitably take on some of those same characteristics. Never think that our own small actions are insignificant. We may be passing on something that will grow into a full-scale epidemic of kindness, generosity, or godliness.

In this passage it is clear that enthusiastic giving encourages even more enthusiastic giving. Some things we need to keep to ourselves. We should not be spreading the bugs of gossip or the germs of cynicism. But, when people see our enthusiastic desire to give to those in need, let us truly be grateful that certain germs do get passed on!

Not only that, but we are encouraged that change comes by being living example of the generosity of Christ. No one legislated the giving which the Corinthians inspired. Instead, people simply living out their faith in the real world affected change in others. The zeal of one church affected not only their own community, but also another one much farther up the road.