Infected by a Divine Pandemic

Recently, my dad has come down with an awful cold. It really makes no sense to me, middle of July and the guy gets a cold. And it's truly annoying to work with him because he has no regard for anyone around him (namely me, his own firstborn son) and coughs and coughs all over the truck, our tools, and my precious God-given air. Disgusting. And cold's are notorious for spreading, and spreading because of close contact. My nieces too are very sick now because he spent time with them just a few days ago. Interesting isn't it? The people you love the most you end up getting sick because of your close proximity to them. Yes, random people can get sick from you too, but it all has to do with closeness and breathing the same air.

Now none of this is new to anyone I'm sure, and it's not really new to me either but I just so happened to read this tonight in the book I'm reading called "Finding Our Way Again" by Brian McClaren:

"...and just as a person who gets too close to a person with a cold catches first the germs and then their symptoms from his companions, then if we are plunged into God's light and heat (speaking of God as a consuming fire) long enough, if we stay close enough to God for long enough, close enough to breathe God's breath, so to speak, then we will catch a case of God... The symptoms of what God has; love, joy, peace, patience, justice, purity, strength, vitality...will be transferred to us, and we will be infected."

We would thus be infected by the Holy One. But this is a good infection! Because in this way we too would become "carriers" of these divine symptoms of love, grace, peace, mercy, justice, etc and hopefully cause a full-blown pandemic!

So, may you spend time with God...however that looks for you... Whether it's with people discussing Christ's life, death, resurrection, and life inside us or reading Scripture, or praying, or spending time marveling at creation, whatever the case may be, and by doing so become infected by his love and become carriers of these divine symptoms. For we are to spread these and share them with the world around us. So go ahead, cough, cough everywhere, over everything, and may we live to cause a pandemic that will spread over all the earth!!

Grace and Peace,

-Ty