Daily Influence

 

Good afternoon, and welcome to this edition of Thursday Thought.

 Have you ever given much thought to how wide your circle of influence extends into society and the world?  Now, I know that’s a rather deep question to start off a Thursday Thought, but the question is certainly pertinent.  Perhaps a question you might have for me before you even begin to answer my question might be, “How in the world did you come up with that thought, and why are you asking the question?”

I’m asking because as I count off the months and years, which by the way seem to be coming at me much more quickly than they did in my childhood and younger adult days, I think back to those people I’ve met and developed some kind of relationship with or events that I participated in which were somehow more important than I perhaps thought at the time.  I especially can think back on people I’ve known, many of whom I still know and have a relationship with, who are scattered far and wide on the earth.  The rise of the Internet and social media has made those kinds of widespread connections very easy and accessible.  I have to wonder just how much their knowing me has influenced them in some way, and how my knowing them has influenced me in some way.

The web of relationship is much more complicated than we might at first think.  And the fact that we have some kind of friendship or relationship with someone else pretty much naturally leads to some kind of change in that person and in us…some kind of alteration in how we think or behave…some kind of way in which we are different somehow for having that relationship.  Sometimes those changes are positive, for the good.  Other times those changes turn out to be destructive and cause damage to one’s health and well-being.

And one’s circle of influence…oh my, that is usually much, much larger than we ever have thought could be possible.  At times, we are unknowingly much more influential upon the lives of others than we ever could imagine.  And we’ll probably never know the extent of that influence or how our influence has changed not only the person we know, but people, situations, and events that they know and are part of.

We don’t exist in a vacuum.  We are not the only ones we affect when we say or do some thing or other.  Each of us looms large in the lives of others, whether we know it or not.  What we say.  What we think.  What we do.  Those actions affect others even if we do them in private…even if we make every effort to hide them…even if we take all measures to keep them out of the lives of others.  We may succeed in keeping those things private; however, they will have an effect on us and in turn we will alter in some way, large or small, how we interact with others.  Society and the world are very tangled webs of relationships.  We can only begin to understand small parts of those webs.

And the amazing thing about it all is that this influence is felt even when we are living our ordinary, routine days.  We don’t have to do or say something spectacular in order for the influence to be there.  Every day.  Every hour.  Every interaction has the potential to affect others for the better or the worse.

That doesn’t mean that you have to somehow be fearful of interaction or be overly cautious when you live your daily life.  It just means that we are indeed not islands.  We don’t live alone.  We aren’t just our own.  We’re all interrelated in some way.  We affect others in ways that we cannot fathom.  We are indeed in many ways our brother’s keeper.

Live your life.  Live it with joy, contentment, and peace.  Live it as God intended.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  And love God above all else.

 

Blessings.