Influencing
From the Series—Journey
July 10, 2003This evotional continues our series of messages titled Journey: The Road to Spiritual Maturity . We’re exploring four dimensions of discipleship: seeking, learning, influencing, and investing. This evotional focuses on influence.
Influence is the exercise of spiritual force. That comes right out of Webster’s dictionary. By definition, influence is a spiritual thing. Your level of influence will be determined by your willingness and openness to be filled and used by the Holy Spirit. An influencer is someone who sees and seizes opportunities to exercise spiritual force. They are looking for and acting upon God-given opportunities.
Galatians 6:9 is the mindset of an influencer. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Make Someone’s Day
A few years ago I read a story written by Art Buchwald that captures the mindset of an influencer. He tells a story about driving in a NY City cab with a friend of his. When they got out, his friend said, “Thanks for the ride. You did a superb job of driving.” The cabbie was skeptical at first. He said, “Are you a wise guy or something?” The man said, “No. I really admire the way you keep your cool in traffic.” The cabbie smiled and said, “Thanks!”
Art asked his friend, “What was that all about?” His friend said, “I’m trying to bring love back to New York.” Art said, “How can one man bring love back to New York?” Art’s friend explained his plan. He said, “I just made that taxi driver’s day. Suppose he has 20 fares. He’s going to be nice to those 20 fares because someone was nice to him. Those fares will in turn be kinder to their employees or shopkeepers or waiters or even their own families. Eventually the goodwill could spread to at least a 1,000 people. Now that isn’t bad is it?”
Art said, “But you’re depending on that taxi driver to pass your goodwill on to others. His friend said, “The system isn’t foolproof. I might deal with ten different people today. If out of ten I can make three happy, then eventually I can indirectly influence the attitude of 3,000 more.”
As they were walking and talking, Art’s friend winked at a woman. Art said, “You just winked at a very plain-looking woman.” His friend said, “And if she’s a school teacher her class will be in for a fantastic day.”
What a great outlook on life-- looking for opportunities to make someone’s day! Influence is first and foremost a mindset . It’s a way of looking at the world. If you’re not looking for opportunities to influence others you won’t see them. If you are looking for opportunities to influence you’ll find no shortage of opportunities. There are opportunities all around us all the time.
Praizd
Every Thursday our staff has a team-building time. We generally read through a book together and then talk about how we can personally and corporately implement what we’ve read. A few weeks ago we read the best-selling business book titled Fish! The inspiration for the book is a fish market in Seattle called Pike Place Fish and it introduces four pretty simple principles that can totally revolutionize a workplace: Play, Be Present, Choose Your Attitude, and Make Their Day.
I loved all four principles, but the one that really captured our imagination was “make their day.” The employees at Pike Place don’t just sell fish to their customers. They want to make their customer’s day! That is what drives them. And that is what ought to drive us. Galatians 6:9 can be paraphrased in three words: make someone’s day . Paul says, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.”
We spent part of our team-building time talking about how we could put that principle into practice. What we came up with was Praizd --an attempt to one-up MTV’s Punkd. We set up some hidden cameras, pulled off a fake pizza delivery, and catered Ruth Chris steak for ten community group leaders. If you saw the video it’d be pretty evident that our leaders were “influenced.” The only limit to the amount of influence we have is the amount of time and energy we’re willing to invest into it.
Radar
Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Prayer is like spiritual radar --it is the way we become more watchful and thankful. When we’re in prayer mode we see God-given opportunities all around us.
On Saturday nights, I often pray outside Union Station as a way of getting geared up for Sunday services. Last Saturday night I was praying and I noticed a man approaching me out of the corner of my eye. To be perfectly honest, part of me didn’t want to be interrupted. “Can’t you see I’m busy praying about influencing!”
But I knew it was a divine appointment. To make a long story short, I met someone who is going through a crisis in their life. I told them, “I was sitting here praying when you walked up. I don’t think this is an accident . I think this is a divine appointment.” I know that $10 and 10 minutes isn’t going to change everything, but I’m not called to change everything. In fact, I can’t change anything! But I am called to do good when I have the opportunity to do it. And who knows? Maybe that conversation will be a turning point. When he walked off he said it was a “new beginning.”
Sometimes we totally miss divine appointments because we see them as human interruptions. One of my mottos is: ministry happens. If you read the gospels you’ll find that a majority of the ministry that happened wasn’t pre-planned. It just happened.
In Mark 10, Jesus is walking out of Jericho and a blind man named Bartimaeus calls out to him. It says, “When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more.”
The people that rebuked him saw him as a human interruption. And there is no question that Jesus had places to go and things to do. But Jesus saw a divine appointment. It says, “Jesus stopped.” Those two words speak volumes. And Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” And immediately his sight was restored and he followed Jesus.
We’ve got to get into the “divine appointment” mindset. Oswald Chambers said, “It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God: but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things.” Influence may be as simple as lending a helping hand or praying for someone or saying a kind word.
Little Things
A few years ago I came across a little book titled Kid’s Random Acts of Kindness . Let me share a couple of them with you. Kids are experts on influence.
A sixth-grader named Michelle said, “One day I came upon an elderly neighbor that desperately needed help weeding her garden. After many hours of labor she offered me ten dollars. I said, ‘What the heck, this one’s on me.’ It felt good helping her out of the goodness of my heart.”
A sixth-grader named Alexandria says, “At school I gave a girl some chips and the next day she gave me some chips and candy just for giving her some chips. Now am I nice or what.”
An eighth-grader named Erin, “I was going down the stairs after 1st period. Everyone was walking all over a fifth grader on the ground. I decided to help him pick up his books and when I was finished I told him I was sorry everyone was stepping on him. I walked away feeling good about myself but I knew he was crying. I know how he felt. I was also a fifth grader once. I’m not telling you this so you think I’m a nice person. I’m telling you because what I did made me feel good about myself. I hope you take that into consideration. I want other people to know that by helping one person it makes you feel like you helped the whole world.”
A sixth-grader named Michael says, “I like reading newspapers. Everyday we go to a gas station to go to get a newspaper to read. When I went out the gas station, I noticed a woman coming. Now usually, being myself, I never hold doors for anyone. But, feeling good this particular day , I felt like doing something nice. Now you may think this is nothing, but I think that someday the little things will count in this world.”
Not bad theology! That’s the message of Matthew 25: the little things are the big things. Jesus says, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine , you did it unto me.” And here’s what I love about Matthew 25. None of this stuff is over our heads. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
We can do this! I think sometimes we’re paralyzed by what we can’t do instead of being empowered to do what we can. We can’t do everything so we don’t do anything. Edward Everett Hale said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”