Contagion

"Smiles are the most contagious emotional signal of all, having an almost irresistible power to make others smile in return." - Daniel Goleman

"Leadership expert Erik Calonius tells of a study of 12,000 interconnected people in Massachusetts that found that happiness passes from one person to another like the flu. The closer you are to a happy person, the happier you'll be. Statistically, each happy friend a person has increases that person's probability of being happy by about nine percent. Every unhappy friend decreases it by seven percent. Experts call this 'contagion.'

"Readers of Exodus shouldn't be surprised at this revelation, for negative attitudes swept through the Israelites in epidemic waves. For example, in chapter 15 [of Exodus], the Israelites burst into hymns over the parting of the Red Sea; but by the end of the chapter, they were grumbling again."

Exodus 15:20-24 (ESV) "20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: 'Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.' 22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?'"

Very soon after God had miraculously delivered them from the Egyptians, there was a huge attitude change toward Moses and God seemingly all of the sudden. Moses was no longer viewed as their hero; and God had somehow lost their trust, even though He had just showed that there was nothing He couldn't do. It was likely only a few people at first with these negative attitudes. But that number grew and grew as discontentment and complaining spread like wildfire from person to person. Even those who had a strong faith in God would have started having some doubts after constantly hearing all the grumbling and after being around so many people who chose to be unhappy. It just goes to show that your attitudes do make a huge difference.

"The attitude you're carrying right now will spread to somebody else today. It's not only harmful to you, but to others also if you harbor an unhappy attitude. If you're joyful, you'll lift the spirits of those around you. If you're angry, [bitter, or pessimistic,] you'll infect them with negative feelings. The Bible tells us to exhort one another, to hold fast the faith, and to spread abroad the love of God with overflowing hearts." Granted, it's not the natural thing to do, but it is so much more rewarding for ourselves and others to spread love and joy than spreading around diseases like unhappiness and discontentment.

Numbers 11:1 (ESV) "Now the people complained about their troubles in the hearing of the Lord. When the Lord heard it, His anger burned."

Obviously, God doesn't approve when our negative attitudes are being spread to others. It saddens Him to see us hurting ourselves and hurting others when we fail to keep our eyes on the joy of the Lord. A negative mood can not only affect others around us temporarily, but also potentially affect your own (and possibly someone else's) whole day, week, or even year.

Every day, you have a choice to either rely on God to give you what you need to make it through the day (which will immensely help you to keep on having joy, despite whatever happens), or to rely on yourself (which will automatically leave you with feelings of unhappiness and of being under a huge burden). It's obvious which is the better choice, but so often we unknowingly chose the latter, and then wonder why we are having so much trouble approaching anything with happiness.

As you go into a new year, you can do one of two things. You can look back at all the failures, all the things you shouldn't have done, all the things you wish you had tried. But that will only leave you feeling defeated, and like you're wasting away your life. Yes, some prayerful reflection can be a very good thing so that you hopefully won't repeat the same mistakes, but to dwell too much on the past will hurt far more than it will help. Starting a new year off with such a negative outlook would be liable to adversely affect your entire year, and would certainly give you little hope for what the year could hold. Worst of all, you could easily miss out on the things God has in store for your future all because you spent too much time concentrating on those sins God has already forgiven and those failed attempts you can't do over again right.

The better choice would be to look at what God has done for you in the past year; how He's been there for you through it all, how He's brought new people and circumstances into your life to change you for the better, how He's led you along, whether you were aware of it at the time or not. And then thank Him for His love and His never-failing help that kept you going, realizing that He has never failed you in the past and He isn't going to start failing you now. What a difference that could make to your entire year if you focused more on what God has done for you and through you, than where you went wrong in the past year. Instead of revisiting the past, look forward to what God has in store.

Lamentations 3:22-24 (ESV) "22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'"

JPK


*the quoted passages are either from the ESV translation of God's Word, or from a devotional entitled "Contagion" in Dr. David Jeremiah's July 2012 edition of Turning Points.