What’s Your Sphere of Influence?

called Holy Habits, which I’ve read with a study group.  One of her oft-repeated questions is the title of this post.  Her sphere is huge, it’s safe to say.  But what about mine, or yours?  As we move into one of the most social times of the year, and perhaps come in contact with more people than usual, or people whom we see rarely, it’s a good question to ask.  How will you influence the people you see?  And– how do you influence the ones you see every day?  I’ve begun making this idea a real matter of prayer:  “The only person I can change is myself, but if I change, others may change.  So Lord, change me.”  Not the people around me.  Me.

Let me tell you a funny story that shows some progress in my life.  I belong to a wonderful, wonderful organization called Bible Study Fellowship International.  (Did I mention that it’s wonderful?)  We have periodic get-togethers outside of our regular classes, and I had volunteered to host one on Nov. 11.  But then I promptly forgot about it.  This wasn’t a situation where I had to feed people; everyone was supposed to bring her own lunch, with me as hostess perhaps providing a dessert and something to drink.  We got a fair amount of snow overnight on the 10th in the Denver area, so I checked to see whether the local schools were closed for the day since we follow their schedule.  There didn’t seem to be any information, so I checked my e-mail and saw a message from my discussion leader saying, “We will hope to meet tomorrow.  Remember that we’re all going over to Debi’s for lunch after class if we aren’t cancelled due to weather.”  Wha-a-a-t?  Oh my, I thought.  I hope they do, indeed, cancel.  I’m not ready for this!  But then I realized, hey, it’s not so bad.  There’s some cleanup that needs to be done, and some setup.  Luckily Jim was home and pitched in to do a little vacuuming, and (also luckily) he had made some cookies a few days before and there were still some in the freezer.  (I had rather fussed at him for making them, saying, “Do we have to have stuff like that in the house?”  Well, yes, as it turned out.)  We did indeed meet, and there were half a dozen women who were able to come, and we all sat around the dining-room table and had just a splendid time talking about various things going on in our lives.  Everyone was so appreciative about being able to come over.  I bit my tongue and didn’t say, “Well, you know, I had forgotten all about it!”   I just smiled and said, “It was my pleasure.”  And it really was.  This was a change for me, not to over-stress and not to have a huge mess to clean up in the first place.  It was fine.  People didn’t have to know that I was caught by surprise.  What was the point of telling them?

If we want to enlarge that sphere, we have to become “there you are” people and not “here I am.”  I will close this post with a quotation from another godly woman, Anne Ortlund, in her book, Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman:

On this earth you will probably never know them all, but affect all the lives you can.  “Behold how these Christians love one another,” they said in the first century.  And of the ones who aren’t believers–your warmth, your smile may open doors which will draw them in.  “There you are,” you say to your public world.  “God loves you, and I love you.  What can I do for you today?”  And from that well-tended, precious center of you, the circle will enlarge . . . and enlarge . . . and enlarge (p. 102, 1977 edition).