INfluences

So I was on Facebook this morning, as I’m sure many of you do at times. I wasn’t really doing anything, but I’d kind of zoned out and was clicking on random friends just to see what they were up to.  I find it interesting how many of them have changed from when I last knew them, perhaps many years ago. How much I have changed as well.  I think back to when we were around each other and what kind of “place” we were at in our lives. High School, College, very impressionable, shapable…and yes, ignorant places.

It’s not that we’re different in jobs and money and things like that (though we are), but in belief systems, world views, how we approach God & our relationship with Christ, the method in which we share our faith & life with the world.

My answer is simply this: we allowed different things to influence us.  We’ve read certain books, listened to certain teachers, and been shaped by different circumstances. I think the foundations of our faith are the same, yet how we live out that faith is what is different. I’m certainly not saying that anybody is wrong, I am just simply reflecting on the fact that what we allow to influence us is what shapes our lives & views. (Nothing new)

So my question to you, the reader, is what is influencing you?  Do you think that you are being influenced by circumstances, people, teachers and other things and you don’t even realize it? I think some of the most major influence that shapes us happens to us and we don’t even realize it.

I’m just reflecting on that today and measuring my own life and what has influenced me. There are particular people, authors, circumstances that have shaped me. And all those things are under the umbrella of God’s influence for my life.  I think it’s okay for everybody to be different. There is an immeasurable number of different people today, and if we were all the same then WE wouldn’t influence THEM.

So think about that today.  What has influenced you? What IS influencing you right now? And what effect has that had on your journey of life?