Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Every single day, whether we realize it or not, we're leaving something behind in the lives of people around us. A mood, an attitude, a spirit that either lifts others up or quietly pulls them down. We're all contagious, not in a medical sense, but definitely in a relational one.

So the question is simple: How are we infecting others? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll says it takes something most of us wouldn't expect—courage—to spread the kind of influence that actually changes lives. Chuck titled today's message "Germs That Make Us Contagious."

Chuck Swindoll: Do you have the courage to be a contagious Christian? Perhaps you never realized that being contagious requires courage. But think about that for a moment. Releasing Christ's infectious presence in your daily life takes the courage to do several things, like to smile at life rather than dread it.

It takes courage to listen to God's "you can do it" rather than paying attention to others' "you better watch out, better hold back there." And it also takes courage to be enthusiastic rather than pessimistic about what the day may hold for you. It doesn't necessarily take a dynamic personality to be contagious.

For instance, we wouldn't say that the late Mother Teresa had a boisterous temperament. Yet her vision to give love to the unlovable, the sick, and the dying influenced untold millions of others, even in her own quiet way. Contagious Christians, you understand, inspire and challenge, and sometimes even rebuke by their example of courage.

Listen, for example, to some descriptions of courage as found in J.B. Phillips' paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 5:13–23, where he writes, "Live together in peace. Encourage the timid, reprimand the unruly, help those who are weak. Be very patient with everyone. Be sure that no one repays a bad turn by a bad turn. Good should be your objective always. Be happy in your faith at all times. Never stop praying.

"Be thankful whatever your circumstances may be. If you follow this advice, you will be working out the will of God expressed to you in Christ Jesus. Never dampen the fire of the spirit, and never despise what is spoken to you in the name of the Lord. By all means, use your judgment and hold on to whatever is really good. And of course, steer clear of evil in any form. May the God of peace make you holy through and through."

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into 1 Thessalonians on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "Germs That Make Us Contagious."

Chuck Swindoll: Seems to me that most people who want to get the most out of life desire to be contagious people. That implies that you desire to be different. So much of life is just plain boring, just drab. Have you noticed? It just seems to get long, as my mother used to say. Life just seems to get long.

William McNamara once wrote in a book entitled *The Human Adventure* these honest words: "My grievance with contemporary society is with its decrepitude. There are few towering pleasures to allure me, almost no beauty to bewitch me. Nothing erotic to arouse me, no intellectual circles or positions to challenge or provoke me.

"No burgeoning philosophies or theology and no new art to catch my attention or engage my mind. No arousing political, social, or religious movements to stimulate or excite me. There are no free men to lead me, no saints to inspire me, no sinners sinful enough to either impress me or share my plight, no one human enough to validate the going lifestyle.

"It is hard to linger in that dull world without being dulled. I stake the future on the few humble and hearty lovers who seek God passionately in the marvelous messy world of redeemed and related realities that lie in front of our noses." I say amen to that.

Seems to me that what we really need in this world is a body of people whose lives demand an explanation. That's not original with me. I heard that from Lloyd Ogilvie. Our lives, if they are indeed contagious, will be lives that demand an explanation. People will want to know how come you're so much like that.

Now, when I talk about being contagious, I mean it in the right sense. We're all contagious. The problem is we're infecting people with the wrong germs. Not the unhealthy kind of contagion. Webster says to be contagious is to communicate by contact, to be catching.

When people are contagious, there's an influence that spreads from their lives that simply cannot be turned off. We find ourselves inspired by them and challenged by them, and more often than not rebuked by them without their attempting to rebuke us verbally.

They convince us of the good way to live. They inspire us to reach a greater destiny. That takes courage. It takes courage to live like that. Jeremiah was challenged: "If you have run with the footmen"—meaning the infantry—"and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with horses?"

Which is another way of saying if the infantry wears you out, what are you going to do when the cavalry comes? "And if in the land of peace wherein you trusted you got tired, what will you do in the jungle of the Jordan?" When things were going well, you found yourself swamped by your own self-imposed neuroses. What are you going to do when it's jungle fighting?

Jeremiah, be contagious. Be different in this dull world. Many of our Christian heroes had such courage. Saint Francis of Assisi—you should study his life sometime. Now, when you see pictures of Francis, you think of an old stooped-shoulder man that talked to birds and played around in the garden and lived a life about as exciting as watching paint dry.

But that's not Saint Francis of Assisi. That's not him. You know what they called him in his day? *Joculator Domini*, the hilarious saint. How about Mother Teresa? I cannot imagine Mother Teresa waking up to an alarm in Calcutta at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning thinking, "Oh rats, another hard day in the ghetto."

I don't believe she starts her day like that. I don't believe she spends her life complaining about the lumpy mattress or the hot days or the long nights. No, there's something contagious about people like that. To be around folks like that is to be infected with germs of encouragement, and you want to do better. You want to accomplish more. You want to reach new heights.

There is within us a choice we can make to spread poison or to spread encouragement. And I think the New Testament is full of sufficient challenge to send us in the right direction. Turn, if you will, to 1 Thessalonians 5. There's a whole list of things. Let me tell you a funny thing that happened, and it's not in my notes, so don't tell anybody I told you, okay?

Sometime you get gifts in the strangest ways. My friend Ray Stedman was ministering at a place back east as I recall, and he was sitting at breakfast alone one morning and there was a pewter salt and pepper set and a little creamer in front of him, just beautiful. And he thought in a weak moment, "Now that would fit neatly in my suitcase. I could take that home, and this place would never miss it."

And then the more he thought about it and the more scandal he realized he would create as a minister stealing these things, he thought, "I can't do that." And so the next Sunday while he was preaching, he was on the subject of stealing and he admitted this to everyone. He says, "I want you to know that even I can be tempted to do that."

The following Sunday morning at his study, there was a little package and he unwrapped it and it was this pewter salt and pepper shaker and creamer. Someone in the congregation heard his story and called back there and thought if he wants it that much, I'll send it to him, you know.

And so when he shared it the next Sunday, he said, "I also noticed this lovely color television set." And he said, "You know what? I did not get a color television set." Back to the stuff at hand here. I want you to notice that this list we're looking at kind of evolves out of a statement that Paul makes in verse 11: "Encourage one another. Build up one another."

I think if I were to paraphrase it, I would say be contagious with encouragement. Be an edifier just as a regular habit of your life so that when anyone leaves your presence, even though they were there for a reproof, they felt built up. That's quite a challenge.

Be contagious in putting courage into someone else. That's why I ask, are you courageous enough to be contagious? See the word encourage—it means that, putting courage into someone else. Enthusiasm is from *entheos*. *Theos* means God—putting God into another life. Encourage, putting courage into another life.

And lest he leave us with just the mocking sound of a command, he adds a list of things we can do as we wrap ourselves up like a gift and give ourselves to people. Some of the things are kindly requested. Verse 12: "I request of you that you appreciate those who are your spiritual leaders. Show respect for your spiritual leaders."

And verse 13 concludes with another kindly requested: give to others the gift of peace. See the way it reads? "Live in peace with one another. Be peaceful." And then he changes to urgency in verse 14: "Now we urge you." Now he gets a little closer to home. There are some things that are urgently needed if you're going to be contagious.

If you're going to have an impact in a dull world, there are some things that must mark your life, and they're urgent things. Notice them. Admonish the unruly. Put courage into the discouraged. Stay with the weak—the word help suggests the idea of staying with them in the long haul. We looked at that closely last time.

Be increasingly more patient. And verse 15, refuse to retaliate. Don't get even. Don't even try to get even. Let them win, if they want to call that winning. You will never be contagious if you spend your life getting even. No. He goes further. We had to stop because we run out of time and we want to continue.

When you get to verse 16 down through 20, you come upon things that are continually appropriate. See the way it reads? "Always rejoice. Unceasingly pray. In everything give thanks." Stop extinguishing the spirit and stop turning off messages from God spoken through the throat of a prophet.

And then there are finally—well, there's one thing that's occasionally uncertain, and so as we're going to see, we need to examine it carefully. If it's good, stay with it; if it's bad, get rid of it. We'll look at that in a minute. Now, some things that are continually appropriate. If you want to be contagious, work on these things: always rejoice.

I cannot name one thing that is more contagious than genuine joy. Can't name a thing. I know some people who say, "Look, I just don't show it. I'm joyful; I just don't show it." I never met anybody of whom that was true. If you are truly joyful, you cannot keep from showing it.

I'm not saying you have to be a cheerleader. I'm not saying you have to have a lot of charisma or dynamic. You don't have to be like that in personality. I know some very quiet kind of people who are terribly contagious to be around, full of joy. They're not applauding a lot, they don't do backflips down the road, they don't sing to the top of their voice. They're quiet people, but they're contagiously happy.

There is in this a well-developed sense of humor, an optimistic outlook on life, a focusing on the healing rather than on the difficulty of the problem. A person who is rejoicing always is one who is lighthearted in spirit, one who on occasion really enjoys a good laugh.

Because some of you still don't look convinced, I've done a little research in this and I want to share with you that there is scientific proof it will do you good. I don't know if you've read *The Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient* by Norman Cousins.

It was written by this former *Saturday Review* editor. He was hospitalized in 1964 with an extremely rare crippling disease. When conventional medicine failed to improve his condition, he was diagnosed as incurable. Cousins checked out of the hospital.

Being aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the human body, the man reasoned that the reverse must also be true. So he decided to dwell on becoming well again. He borrowed a movie projector. Now, if you're a physician, just keep listening. Don't turn this off; just keep listening.

He borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment plan, consisting of Marx Brothers motion pictures and old *Candid Camera* reruns on film. He studied all aspects of his disease and with the help of his physician, he learned what would have to take place in his body to make it right again. He focused on that.

In his book, he recounts that he made the joyous discovery that ten minutes—ten minutes—of genuine belly laughter would give him at least two hours of painless sleep. What had seemed to be a progressively debilitating fatal cellular disease was reversed, and in time, Cousins almost completely recovered.

After his personal account of the victory appeared in the *New England Journal of Medicine*, he received more than 3,000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world. 34 medical schools have included his article in their instructional materials, and in 1978, Norman Cousins joined the faculty of the UCLA Medical School.

Isn't that amazing? Another man writing about it says it seems the brain causes the cells to produce proteins called endoenzymes, which are natural morphine-like painkillers. Laughter triggers the production of these endoenzymes. Doctors now agree that Cousins' self-prescribed therapy of joy has a scientific basis.

Laughter reduces pain and actually helps to cure the patient. With laughter as his painkiller, Cousins no longer had to use sleeping pills and other drugs that alter the endocrine system and interfere with the body's own internal healing mechanism. I think that's great.

I'm involved in a little radio program and on occasion, I'll have people write me and say, "You can stop preaching," which kind of catches me up short. And then they will add, "But don't stop laughing. Yours is the only laughter that ever comes into our home."

Is there laughter in your home? When did it stop? Chances are very good that since it stopped, you've felt worse. You say, "Well, if you only knew my circumstance." Wait a minute. Since when did circumstances give us reason to laugh or not? If I went on the basis of circumstances, friend, you think I'd do what I do for a living?

You and I realize that the challenge of life is living above circumstances, seeing beyond the petty differences that lie between us and other individuals, overlooking faults, going further than the gloomy, grim response of others. I love this statement I got from a French Jesuit priest theologian whose name I can't even pronounce: "Joy is the surest sign of the presence of God." Isn't that good? I think that's true.

Now, how do I do that? Unceasingly pray. Hey, these are linked together like links in a chain. If you try to do that without this next one, you're going to run dry. Your laughter is going to turn into just a silly little smile. You're going to become just a jokester. No one wants to be around just a jokester. That's not funny. We pay entertainers to do that for us, and most of them are grim people when they're not in front of the camera.

The only way to have a heart that's full of joy is to have a heart that's free of the burdens. And to have a heart that's free of the burdens means you've got to release them. And you release the burden how? Prayer. See the way he puts it? Unceasingly pray.

Many years ago, I stumbled across this paraphrase: "Pray with the frequency of a hacking cough." Ever had one of those little ticklish feelings in your throat and just required that about every two or three minutes—sometime less than that—you had to cough? You just had to. That's the idea. It's not a nonstop, 24-hour-a-day burden of prayer. It's not that.

It's just a regular releasing of the load. You're with someone, they're ornery, they're hard to deal with—release the load to God. You get a letter that attacks you—release, let him read it. You have a job that requires of you heavy decisions and a lot of high-powered responsibility kind of things—let him share in it.

Why do you think you have a savior? Since when could you handle it? You will become extraordinary if you do that. You will become the gossip of the office. Your life will demand an explanation. Contagious is the word. Pray without ceasing. What's the genius of this discipline? Number one, it is tremendously therapeutic. And number one, it is a direct pipeline to wisdom.

That's why prayer works. It's a therapy that sends the burden from my shoulders to God's. And second, it sends back to me perspective, which is called in Scripture wisdom. Works. I've never seen it fail. Never. When I say to my father, "Help me here," he does. And when he helps me, he also sends along in the package insight I need, perspective that I need, wisdom that I need. I'm freed from the anchor that drags me down.

And as a result, guess what? Verse 18 happens: "In everything give thanks." Did you notice this? It's an always matter of rejoicing. It is an unceasing matter of prayer. It is an in everything matter of giving thanks. Not for everything.

This helped me a long time ago. I used to think that I was responsible before God to give thanks for everything. No. Why would I ever give thanks for something I really needed to confess to him as wrong? I'm not thankful for sin in my life. I'm not thankful for calamity that drops me to on my face. I'm not thankful for the cursing of someone else against me. I'm not thankful for ugly things done against my children.

But in them, I am thankful. You see, the little word in gives me the perspective of the whole pattern, which God is weaving together in his sovereign way. In his pattern, there are beautiful threads of gold and silver and yellow and red and orange and bright greens and bright blues. But in his pattern, there are also somber grays and blacks and deep hues of brown.

Those are needed in the pattern, and so in this whole pattern that God is weaving together, I'm giving him thanks. I'm giving him thanks for the low tide. In the midst of it, I am gaining a depth concerning his plan that I would not have gotten but for the thing itself. Not really.

Bill Meyer: Chuck Swindoll is midway through our study in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. He titled his message "Germs That Make Us Contagious." It's the 11th sermon in a collection of 12 that concludes Monday here on Insight for Living.

Since our verse-by-verse study in Paul's letter concludes next week, I want to remind you that time is running out to request your copy of Chuck's book called *Laugh Again: Experience Outrageous Joy*. It's founded on Paul's letter, not to the Thessalonians though, but to the Philippians. Here's why that's significant.

Did you realize that Philippians is the most joy-filled letter in the New Testament, and it was written by a man in chains? No windows, no freedom—Paul was in prison. And he had no idea how his story would end. Yet he wrote to the Philippians about joy, not as a lofty goal, but as a present-day reality.

Chuck has spent years unpacking how that's even possible and what it means for you today. His book *Laugh Again* will change the way you think about joy and about the God who makes it available in places you'd least expect it. It's our gift to you when you support Insight for Living with a donation today.

Give us a call at 800-772-8888. You can also request the book and give your contribution by going to insight.org/donate. We're deeply grateful for your generous gifts. When you contribute to Insight for Living, you make it possible for us to share these daily studies not only in your community but all around the world in multiple languages.

For countless people, you're providing an oasis of truth where men and women come to understand the unspeakable joy that comes through a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ, the risen one. To send a donation in the mail, write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034, or go online to insight.org/donate.

Bill Meyer: I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to explore the germs that make us contagious Thursday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Germs That Make Us Contagious," was copyrighted in 1984, 1985, 1993, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.