The Power of Influence
When I was 13, I worked in the horse stables at a summer camp in my hometown. Every year, the camp leased about 70 horses so campers could take trail rides and riding lessons. The people who ran the program owned a 4,000-acre ranch in Missouri, and each summer, along with his horses, he, his wife, and his son would come for the summer and run the horsemanship program.
At 13, I was too young to be an actual camp employee, so I volunteered. Most of my days were spent doing whatever was on Ray's (the ranch owner) list, working alongside his son, Shane.
Shane was 16, and at 13, I thought he was the coolest person I had ever met. He was a master rider, a state rodeo champion, and he knew more about horses than I could ever hope to learn.
I was so taken with Shane that, without ever meaning to, I started talking like him, walking like him, and even tried to ride like him. Nobody told me to imitate Shane. It just happened, slowly and over time.
For anyone who was watching, it was clear that I had zero influence on Shane and he had a tremendous influence on me.
The Warning Nobody Talks About
Influence is something that impacts us all.
It is so powerful that global brands hire “influencers” as a part of their advertising to persuade people to buy their product.
Whether we like it or not, all of us have influence and are influenced by someone or something, and it should come as no surprise that Scripture has a lot to say about the role influence plays in our lives.
In the book of Jeremiah, we see the prophet being used by God to proclaim God’s judgment on Judah. God is furious with the people of Judah for their worship of other Gods, their sinful ways, and their decision to consistently break God's law.
About one-third into the book, we see Jeremiah talking to God with some pretty strong language. Jeremiah is bemoaning the fact that he is being persecuted for preaching God’s judgment and truth. At one point during his plea to God, he says, “Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help (referring to God) seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that has gone dry.”
You could say that we are seeing Jeremiah at the end of his rope.
What I find most interesting is God’s response.
God does not coddle Jeremiah and tell him that his feelings are valid. No, God calls the prophet to repentance and then challenges Jeremiah by saying, “You must influence them; do not let them influence you!”
God wasn't asking Jeremiah to isolate himself from Judah or the world around him.
He was asking him to stay planted in the middle of it, while refusing to let it change who he was and how he viewed God.
This was a call to be an influence rather than being influenced.
What We Are Called To & How It Works
In the Gospel of John, we see this same theme in the prayer of Jesus on behalf of all who follow Him. In His prayer, Jesus does not pray to take us out of the world, but to be protected from it.
We are called to be in the world, not of it (or not influenced by it).
This is not a suggestion or a recommendation, but a calling.
A calling to be set apart from, different than.
A calling to be an influencer, not one who is influenced.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us the same thing when he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Our ability to resist the influence does not lie in our own willpower and will not be found in the latest self-help books and therapies.
My staying anchored while society shifts and drifts further away from God’s truth can only be found in the daily renewal of my mind, which can only be accomplished when I am filling my mind with God’s scripture and truth.
The Slow Drift
When I read through Jeremiah and see the litany of offenses that Judah has committed against God, I often see myself.
It is just so easy to let my mind wander, instead of renewing it.
In my mind, it can be easily justifiable to make an excuse just this one time.
All over our country, we see churches, pastors, and Christian leaders bend the knee to the prevailing culture and accept and affirm those things that God calls sin and offence.
This lack of influence does not happen in one point in time.
It is typically a slow drift that happens, and then over time we find ourselves looking just like those who do not follow or call on the name of Jesus.
Each day we have a choice. We can renew our minds and influence the world around us, or we can let the drift continue and be influenced by what the world deems as valuable, which will always be at odds with God’s way.
If we are going to live the life that God has called us to, we must choose the former. And this can only be done when we choose daily to allow God’s Spirit and His Word to influence us to be more like His Son.
Running the race with you,
Carlos
This edition was first published in The Life Design Newsletter on LinkedIn.