Outrageous Love and Contagious Life

This is the week of prayer and fasting for our church. We spend a week in January praying and fasting for our church family, the Kingdom coming in Fort Worth and the world and asking God to speak about the upcoming year. The first two days titles for prayer were Monday: Outrageous Love and Tuesday: Contagious Life. I love these two phrases! Outrageous love really challenged me yesterday. I really had to remind myself what that meant... that didn't mean providing basic Child Life services throughout the day - that meant EXCEEDING the expectations of my patients and families, blessing them beyond their wildest thoughts, and doing everything in my power to make their hospital stay better... quite a task, but one that could never be completed without the Holy Spirit's presence. So I spent the day reminding myself that Jesus was the most outrageous lover of our souls. The Lord was good to remind me of the power of love - selfless laying down of my life often. Today the Lord was good to remind me of contagious life and what that meant. I kept thinking I want everyone to "catch the infection" of the Kingdom. I want people completely ruined, totally INfected, by the Holy Spirit - the kind of infection that EVERYONE around me catches quickly and is knocked down by. (I work on an infectious disease unit at the hospital...this is the best analogy for me.) But infections that are contagious are usually subtle in the beginning, bold in the middle, and totally exhaust you by the end, yet refreshing when completed...what a beautiful picture of Kingdom living. I want to be exhausted for Jesus and His purposes. I want to be contagious in EVERYTHING that glorifies Jesus! These two word phrases have been powerful this week. :)