Spreading Love: The Power of Positive Influence
Devotional
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We have been going through such an unbelievably unusual and prolonged season together with COVID, social distancing, masks. We are keenly aware of contagions and have learned way more about them than any of us want to. But of course, it's not just physical disease that is contagious. Emotionally and spiritually, there are contagions. Laughter can be contagious. [00:33:46]
Other emotions are contagious also. Anxiety is enormously contagious. Anger is incredibly contagious. You look at a lot of life on the internet right now. It's the age of outrage, and it just spreads. One of the key choices that I have to make as I walk through this day is, will I focus on how do other people treat me? [00:89:43]
It's a classic story at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark where a leper comes to Jesus, and lepers were considered so contagious that they were forced to quarantine themselves, to stay at a social distance for the rest of their lives. The leper asks Jesus if you can help me, and the text says Jesus was indignant. [00:131:12]
He reaches out and touches the leper and tells him to be clean. What's fascinating is not just that he cleanses the leper but that he touches the leper before he cleanses them. He did not have to do that, but apparently, Jesus knew something. Where other people were afraid of what would happen to them if they got infected by the leper, Jesus decided that he would infect the leper with his health and with his love. [00:155:28]
C.S. Lewis's book "The Screwtape Letters," old Uncle Screwtape is this tempter devil, and he's writing to young Wormwood about the human being, the patient that Wormwood is supposed to try to keep away from God. What has happened now is that the human being has fallen in love and is going to be impacted now by a whole new circle of people. [00:183:36]
Your man is in love and in the worst kind he could possibly have fallen into. I have looked up this girl's dossier, and I am horrified at what I find. This is wonderful. Not only a Christian but such a Christian, a vile, sneaking, simpering, demure, monosyllabic, mouse-like, watery, insignificant, virginal, bread-and-butter miss. [00:209:92]
Now we are part of God's great kingdom, of the reign of God, where all is the way that God wants it to be, and we get to be a part of that. That means that we are part of a movement of hope and meaning that will surely prevail. So I don't have to walk through this day wondering how are other people going to treat me. [00:307:91]
It was a fascinating event very early on in the military career of Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was at its early stages. He was not even a general yet. He was leading a relatively small group of soldiers and going into his first battle, his first engagement, and he writes how he was terrified. [00:342:16]
He learned that day that not only did he have to face fear, his enemy had to face fear. He said he never forgot that lesson. It got him into trouble sometimes later on in the war because he would be so filled with confidence in his own plans that he wouldn't always anticipate there might be some enemies who wouldn't be petrified with fear. [00:388:08]
Paul says this is a wonderful image, for we are the aroma of Christ. We are spreading, we can be spreading a kind of beauty and loveliness and joy into the lives of other people. That's what old Screwtape is so concerned about here. He goes on, then of course, the human being gets to know this woman's family and whole circle. [00:430:80]
Could you not see that the very house she lives in is one he ought never to have entered? The whole place reeks of that deadly odor. The very gardener, though he has been there only five years, is beginning to acquire it. Even guests after a weekend visit carry some of the smell away with them. [00:457:19]
We can seek to build little shelters in our apartment or our home, wherever we're living right now, in our office or desk or shop or wherever we're working or volunteering right now, so that love and gratitude and encouragement and hope and joy flow through us into the very places that we inhabit, into the dog and the cat, the people that we run into. [00:533:28]
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Other emotions are contagious also. Anxiety is enormously contagious. Anger is incredibly contagious. You look at a lot of life on the internet right now. It's the age of outrage, and it just spreads. One of the key choices that I have to make as I walk through this day is, will I focus on how do other people treat me? [00:89:43]
It's a classic story at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark where a leper comes to Jesus, and lepers were considered so contagious that they were forced to quarantine themselves, to stay at a social distance for the rest of their lives. The leper asks Jesus if you can help me, and the text says Jesus was indignant. [00:131:12]
He reaches out and touches the leper and tells him to be clean. What's fascinating is not just that he cleanses the leper but that he touches the leper before he cleanses them. He did not have to do that, but apparently, Jesus knew something. Where other people were afraid of what would happen to them if they got infected by the leper, Jesus decided that he would infect the leper with his health and with his love. [00:155:28]
C.S. Lewis's book "The Screwtape Letters," old Uncle Screwtape is this tempter devil, and he's writing to young Wormwood about the human being, the patient that Wormwood is supposed to try to keep away from God. What has happened now is that the human being has fallen in love and is going to be impacted now by a whole new circle of people. [00:183:36]
Your man is in love and in the worst kind he could possibly have fallen into. I have looked up this girl's dossier, and I am horrified at what I find. This is wonderful. Not only a Christian but such a Christian, a vile, sneaking, simpering, demure, monosyllabic, mouse-like, watery, insignificant, virginal, bread-and-butter miss. [00:209:92]
Now we are part of God's great kingdom, of the reign of God, where all is the way that God wants it to be, and we get to be a part of that. That means that we are part of a movement of hope and meaning that will surely prevail. So I don't have to walk through this day wondering how are other people going to treat me. [00:307:91]
It was a fascinating event very early on in the military career of Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was at its early stages. He was not even a general yet. He was leading a relatively small group of soldiers and going into his first battle, his first engagement, and he writes how he was terrified. [00:342:16]
He learned that day that not only did he have to face fear, his enemy had to face fear. He said he never forgot that lesson. It got him into trouble sometimes later on in the war because he would be so filled with confidence in his own plans that he wouldn't always anticipate there might be some enemies who wouldn't be petrified with fear. [00:388:08]
Paul says this is a wonderful image, for we are the aroma of Christ. We are spreading, we can be spreading a kind of beauty and loveliness and joy into the lives of other people. That's what old Screwtape is so concerned about here. He goes on, then of course, the human being gets to know this woman's family and whole circle. [00:430:80]
Could you not see that the very house she lives in is one he ought never to have entered? The whole place reeks of that deadly odor. The very gardener, though he has been there only five years, is beginning to acquire it. Even guests after a weekend visit carry some of the smell away with them. [00:457:19]
We can seek to build little shelters in our apartment or our home, wherever we're living right now, in our office or desk or shop or wherever we're working or volunteering right now, so that love and gratitude and encouragement and hope and joy flow through us into the very places that we inhabit, into the dog and the cat, the people that we run into. [00:533:28]
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