I'm Contagious

I woke up this morning not feeling all that well. One of the perks of being self-employed, though, is that when I feel like this, my boss is pretty understanding and lets me go back to bed for a couple hours. I'm debating about whether or not to go to the gym and I probably will, just because by the time you start showing symptoms, you're usually not contagious anymore.

But it means that, if what I had was communicable, I may have made one of my other friends sick, too. And I probably got it either at the gym or from one of them.

I'm contagious in other ways. The friends whom I hang out with the most have recently started emulating my jokes a bit more and thinking a little more how I think. I've picked up the (rather annoying) habit of over-using the word "like" when I talk from a different friend, though I have gotten a little better lately now that I'm trying to overcome it.

The point is that you eventually become more like those you are with the most. Husbands and wives, I've heard, eventually start to look more like each other. It may be one reason why those with dogs as pets generally have better health and are happier overall: because dogs are almost always happy and "a merry spirit does good like a medicine."

Think about those you are with the most. Does their broken spirit dry your bones? Or do they lift you up? Do they make you laugh uproariously or do they complain often, even when most of their life seems to be alright? What are they feeding in to your life? Whether you like it or not, you are catching some of what they have. Whether it's good or bad, it affects you if you are around it enough. The only way to overcome the negative effects is to be so focused on God and full of Him that it overwhelms these effects. Are you that focused on God? Is He the one you spend the most time with? Do you at least spend most of your time with those who lift you up and point you to Him?

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I like the analogy of diseases with our attitudes. You may not catch it every time you're around a person, and it may take a long while for you to change to be like that person, but it will happen. You can't help but catch it.

Likewise, whatever you are like will be caught to varying degrees by those around you. What are you giving them? Are you passing around the same loneliness, despair, and anger that is so prevalent in the world, or are you passing on hope, love, and a peace that they can't understand? Do you make people want to catch what you have?