We all know how to laugh, but when someone has an infectious laugh, we laugh harder than we thought possible at the moment. At the same time, we understand the concept of a bad infection spreading, and the results are not appealing.
I was sitting in the pharmacy drive-through line this morning, and after a slow line through a coffee stand, I was not in the best frame of mind. Flipping through the radio dial, I found a college football game that took the edge off the moment. But then, I kept sitting and waiting and getting a bit frustrated.
The driver at the window ahead seemed to be doing nothing but waiting, although the crew in the window were doing things for him behind that bullet-proof-looking glass. Finally, the draw slides out, and I watched him do a C-19 test and put the swab back in the same drawer I would need to use in a few minutes. Uh-oh… Infectious? Good, or bad? I will never know. I lather up with my sanitation routine before, during, and after!
I’m not letting a possible bad infectious moment rub off on me!
That’s my thought this morning.
We allow the infectious mood of the moment (whether germy or not) to set the tone for our response. Laughter or sadness. Happy or gloomy. Safe, or not even close to being safe.
What do you do? How do you handle the moment?
Two Thoughts
David could not use the armament of his king, Saul, to fight the threat of Goliath. Only, he took them off because he had never used them and could not depend on something that probably didn’t fit very well. (1 Samuel 17:38-39) The next few verses describe him using that he was familiar with to fight the thing none of them had faced before.
Then, the Apostle Paul tells us that we need to put on the Whole Armor of God to stand against the enemy’s wiles or stand when the winds of adversity blow. (Ephesian 6:10-20)
There was a difference between the two events—the armor of man or the Armor of God. Use the first one only if it belongs to you and you’ve trained with it. Use the second one no matter your level of expertise or experience.
In trials, you often want to load up against the event and make yourself invincible. Right? Sometimes it’s using what you’ve used before (5 smooth stones), but as Christians, we robe ourselves every day to defeat the enemy – and the enemy is not each other. It’s the enemy of our soul. Can the infectious moment slip by our guard and spread its venom into our lives? Sure. If we are not guarded against it!
You Know Yourself Better Than I Do
Some of our worst infectious moments come from what we say and not just what we might fight against. David seemed to know himself so well that his recorded prayers and songs relate to us at different times, both Good and Bad. They teach us how to see ourselves and come out of our struggles on God’s side of the equation.
Let me share one with you that shows us how David prayed his evening prayer when it seemed he would slip away from God’s presence.
A Psalm of David.
LORD, I cry out to You; Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.
(Psalms 141:1-4 NKJV)
We don’t know the event but imagine a king besieged on every side with pressures and problems. He deals with others’ issues all the time, and at the ending of his day, he turns to God. There’s no TV show to distract him nor social media platform to promote; rather, he spends time in prayer. This is where the Bad Infections can become Good.
Could it simply be we struggle more because we have so many distractions? We turn to novels with man-contrived storylines instead of curling up with God’s Word and reading for pleasure or strength. Instead of talking to God, we let the world fill our minds with laughter, news of calamity, and stories of dialogues intended to turn our thinking a certain way.
Lord, Save Me!
From the focus of the opposition, Lord, Save Me!
As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me.
Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud,
And He shall hear my voice.
He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
For there were many against me.
(Psalms 55:16-18 NKJV)
Maybe, to have a Good Infection of God’s focus, you need to turn from the Bad Infections that surround us all day long! Evening, Morning, and at Noon! Pray. Call out to God. He gives you peace from the battle!