Swine Flu and you…what we are really seeing in America

Well I don’t know about you, but I think I am fed up with hearing about swine flu (typed in all lower case letters for a reason).  I look on my twitter account and see that one of the most searched terms for the past couple of weeks has been swine flu.  This has really turned out to be more of a flop (in a good way) as far as the severity of the flu strain than it was first supposed to be.  People are contracting it and getting better with treatment and some news articles I have read said that it is just a different strain of the common flu.  One thing I find amazing is the way that the world has reacted to this epidemic of words and information about the flu.  The news has reported on it, people have blogged about it, facebook and myspace updates about everyday on it and just a “water cooler” type of buzz that has been infectious not in the disease but in the misinformation about it.  This swine flu has shown me one thing that is unequivocally true about this world and most of its inhabitants…they listen to anything the media and others say and then react to it.  I know that as a Christian, God has not called me to be reactionary in the way I live my life.  Not even on a Spiritual level, but when I react to situations in my life I let circumstances dictate to me how happy I am, how happy I make others around me and am just generally controlled by things other than Jesus.  We need to be the light of the world and this is not just wearing a sandwich board in the downtown area of town and screaming “turn or burn” to people passing by.  It is to have such a relationship with Jesus that we don’t react to situations as far reaching as swine flu or maybe with a coworker that just likes to push our buttons or when something traumatic happens to us in life.  The reason why I know this type of “light shining” will work is the proof of the reactionary nature of the world we live in.  Most people are just reacting to the things that happen in life instead of acting on them.  I am thankful that this flu has not been the pandemic it was first thought it could be, but look at the reaction to people because I really believe it can be an open door for seeing people move from reactionary in life to living a life with Jesus that is “actionary” (if that is even a word) 🙂