Who Influences You and Who Do You Influence?

Influence is the measure of your ability to persuade others to take an action.

I read this line and started thinking about influence. Influence is one of those abstract concepts that affects every one of us each and every day however it is incredibly difficult to measure and quantify. Through reading a piece of written work such as this blog you yourself will be influenced - however each person that reads this may be influenced in a different way. Our ability to influence people is not just dependent on the things that we say and/or do, but it is also dependent on where those who we influence are in their lives at the time we come into contact with them.

Let's take a simple way that people can be influenced. Have you ever tried a recipe for a meal that you had at someone's house? Well, you were influenced. The meal you had was so good that you went out, bought the ingredients and attempted to recreate the meal yourself. If we can be influenced in simple things like sharing recipes then how can we influence people into the Kingdom?

Maybe it is easier than many of us think. I watch my kids and I see things that I do or that my wife does being mimicked by them. We have influenced them. I see them do things that their friends in pre-school do. They have been influenced. I wonder if by just living our lives we actually have the ability to influence people towards the Kingdom. Could it really be that simple? For many of us when we think about introducing people to a relationship with Jesus it seems so difficult. It seems to us that we need to know the right things to say and the right things to do all the time and to be ready for that special moment. I wonder if it isn't a lot simpler than that. I wonder if we just live our lives unashamedly will people see what we do and be influenced?

I heard a story this evening of how we have influenced people in another state. This week there is a group of young people camping at their church and going into their community to reach out to those in need in a StreetReach venture in Pennsylvania. Dione's brother in law is a youth pastor at his church and he was so influenced by what he heard that we had done here that he is in the middle of their first StreetReach Mission week.

That got me excited ... and to be honest a little frightened. If we can have such a strong influence for good then that is great. It scares me though that I may have had an equally strong negative influence on someone somewhere.

"The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret."
Salvador Dali