Contagion

Kindness is contagious, so is negativity. Smiles and frowns flow through the atmosphere like warm and cold fronts circling the globe. Sometimes they cause clear skies. Sometimes they cause a storm. When attitudes collide, the fallout can be disastrous. Sometimes there’s a tornado warning. Sometimes we get caught in a flash flood. All the time, we need to pay attention to the energy within our environment so we can evacuate when signs of trouble surface or hunker down and take cover when the unexpected hits.

The Side of the Road

I’ve heard the story of the good Samaritan so many times. And each time I’ve thought to myself, “Of course I would stop and help a stranger if I saw someone bloodied and lying on the side of the road.” But how many times have I seen someone looking despondent and not stopped to lend a listening ear? How often have I been so caught up in what I was doing, that I didn’t reach out to make someone else feel loved and appreciated? How many times have I been too busy to even notice how someone else has been bloodied by adverse circumstances or beat up by frustration or fear? The meaning of the parable is not just to teach us who our neighbor is, but how we are to treat those we come into contact with every day. We rarely happen across those in need of major medical care, but we often pass others in need of spiritual care. How many more times will we continue to pass by on the other side of the road?