Influence

It's all the rave in the Christian leadership world these day. We talk everything from how to influence people to increasing you influence. It's all about influencing others. But little is spoken about being influenced. It's almost ignored to be honest. We seem to be so focused on us being influential people, and we don't give a thought to what is influencing us.

God reminded me just how important it is that I be influenced. In Matthew 13:24-31, Jesus tells "The Parable of the Weeds." (You gotta love those little titles) But here's what I noticed for the first time.

The parable is about a guy who plants wheat in his field. One night, some enemy of the guy puts weeds in his field. Well, obviously the weeds grew with the wheat. The workers asked if the guy wanted them to pull up the weeds. He tells then not to because it will ruin the wheat too. Then her says this...

"Let both grow together until the harvest." (v. 30)

Now, we know that this verse is talking about those who are redeemed as being the wheat, and those who deny God are the weeds. One day, they will be separated, and the weeds will be burned (Hell), but the wheat will be brought into the barn (Heaven). But here's what I realized, we haven't been separated yet. We're in that part where the weeds and wheat are growing together. In other words, there are good people and bad people in this world. We are in the same world, not separate ones. We encounter good and bad people every day. Both are all around us.

Obviously, we all want to be good people. But how we become good people?

Influence.

Not having influence, but being influenced.

If I want to be a good person, I must have good influences. I have to surround myself with those good influences in my life. I need people around me who are going to influence me to desire to know God, want to help others, do good in my community, and love people.

I need to identify who those people are and make sure that I let them influence me. I need then to be the ones that I want to be like.

But, at the same time, I have to identify thee bad influences, those people who bring me down. There are people that I work with, eat with, hang out with who are negative, selfish, or just behave badly. I need to make sure I don't let those people influence me. This doesn't mean that I separate myself from them, remember we're not at that part yet. It doesn't mean that I don't hang out with them. It means that when I am around them, I remember that they are negative so that I don't let myself become negative.

So I actually made a list of people who are good influences that I need to have, and another list of people who are bad influences. Like I said, you have to identify those bad influences, and I meant actually identify them. Obviously I am the only who will ever see this list. I don't want people knowing that they are bad influences on me, because some of them are in my life no matter what I do. I don't want to hurt anyone or drive them away from me. But it could be cool for those good influences to know how much you appreciate them.

So I have my lists. I know who influences me in a positive way, and who influences me in a negative way. I know what I need to do to be influenced by those positive people, and what I don't need to do to be influenced by the negative people.

Who are those good and bad influences in your life?