Common Sense or OCD?

I was at the local doctor’s office on Tuesday morning for my usual blood tests. They have this wonderful new automated check-in system – a touch screen computer.

Well, you can see the problem instantly, can’t you? A bunch of sick people going in and touching the same screen to check in for their appointments. 

There is a dispenser of antibacterial gunge beside it, and I always use that afterwards. Well, nearly always always. This week, for some stupid reason, I didn’t. 

I remembered once I’d taken a seat in the waiting room, well away from other waiting people, and then I felt self-conscious about getting up again and doing it. Fear of looking OCD I guess. Or insulting someone who had gone just before me.

How stupid was that? A couple days on, my throat feels like I’ve got razors in it and I can barely swallow. I’m now busy gargling with hot salt water and all the rest, wishing I had used the gunge.

I don’t want to be paranoid, but I do think that life is often like that. We do something which appears completely fine. We go somewhere, we meet someone, and there is no outwardly visible sign that anything is amiss. But there may be hidden germs, hidden agendas, hidden ambitions, self-serving at best, malicious at worst. It is easy to become a casualty in this world. 

Jesus warned us. Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves. Stay alert. Remain in Me, he advised. In Him is a safe place, mentally, emotionally, eternally.

Physically? Did I catch a bug because I wasn’t abiding in Jesus that day? No, I don’t think so. I caught a bug because I was contaminated by someone else’s germs. 

Sometimes we just need a good dose of common sense, liberally applied.