We have a unique power over sickness. We can keep a house with three children from getting the flu. A single parent can be kept healthy so they don’t have to miss a week of work. We have an incredible ability to demonstrate our love for others by keeping them safe, and all we have to do is stay away from them.
With school in full swing and cold weather arriving, sickness is starting to make its way through churches, schools, and workplaces. People are spending days at a time in absolute misery, missing out on education or even losing money by missing work. Worse, people are sitting in the hospital because their health has deteriorated so much.
So often, much of this occurs because someone knows they or their child is sick, but they shrug their shoulders and assume everything will be fine. After all, they aren’t vomiting, so probably not that bad. And for those of us with kids, that free childcare at church is too good to pass up.
But as followers of Christ, we need to consider how we can put the needs and safety of others above our own desires.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phillipians 2:3-4)
This language seems so harsh, making it easy to handwave it away and say we don’t expose people to sickness out of selfishness. But when we pair it with the second statement, placing others above ourselves, we can more easily see that we needlessly put others at risk because we don’t want to miss out on something.
Whether it’s that hour of peace during a sermon or a social event with our friends, we often cause days or weeks of suffering for others because of our choices. Our selfishness, suppressed by telling ourselves everything will be fine, puts our wants above someone else’s needs. We don’t do it maliciously, but we nevertheless cause suffering that could have easily been avoided.
Before going around others when we or our family is sick, we can ask ourselves two questions.
- Am I needlessly putting others at risk of illness, or can I completely avoid exposing people to sickness?
- If I must be around others, are there steps I can take to minimize harming others?
Trying to honestly answer these questions is a fantastic way to love others. It may be inconvenient to keep our child out of children’s church or purposely tell others to stay away from us so they don’t get sick, but doing so can keep several families from suffering needlessly.
There are many ways to love others. Often, that means sacrificing ourselves and getting invested in someone’s life. But as winter continues its miserable approach, perhaps the best way we can love another person is to simply stay away from them.
