part 2 - YOU HAVE INFLUENCE.

I'm blogging through my breakout session from last week's Chosen conference. 

Day One found here.

you know where I learn about influence? watching these two.

So I feel like I had a little bit of influence. 

Not by my own might or cuteness or wisdom and it wasn’t for my own glory, but it was there. Here are some things I want to share about influence.

(#1) We all have it.

If you have one husband or two kids or six girlfriends or a small group that you lead or a blog of 10,000 readers or 432 facebook friends – you have influence. He has given you people who care what you think and who you can affect.  I think it’s incredibly important before we think about doing anything online or speaking life in any way – to just stop and ask the Lord where He’s given influence. Who listens to you? Who would like to listen to you if you’d give them the time? Who needs to hear your story? If you think the answer is no one, ask Him.

For me, when I really asked the Lord who these women were and who I needed to be writing to, I feel like He gave me a name for them: Mothers of Extraordinary Circumstances. MEC’s is what we call them at our house. Maybe they’re not all moms, but they’re women who are living extraordinarily or who want to be living extraordinary or who wonder if the Lord will ever give them an ordinary life. They’re women with sick kids or husbands in ministry or not enough money or any number of issues. In short, they’re women who see life outside of the ordinary.

And I wanted to write to them. Give them a giggle or an encouragement, or just impart grace to them by telling them a nasty toddler poop story. Great if others read, but these were my women. My MEC's.  If you have influence, which we’ve established you do, and you know Jesus – 

(#2) then you have a very good gift to give the people who are listening to you.

You have the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Joseph. You have the Jesus of Isaiah 61, who comes to bring good news to the poor. Binds up the brokenhearted. Proclaim liberty to the captives. And who opens the prison to those who are bound.

I am not saying that if you’re a believer, you’re wasting time when you talk about anything other than the Lord. But I am saying that if you’re a believer, and the overwhelming bulk of what you’re sharing isn’t Jesus, I don’t know. It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.

I don’t think there is ANYTHING wrong with recipes, outfit posts, or tips on how to get your baby to sleep. Just like if I’m hanging out with a friend in real life, we might spend time talking about things of our life – marriage, clothing, budgets, etc. But I can’t imagine if I spent a few hours with a good friend and never asked her about her heart. Never asked her what the Lord was teaching her. Never asked her how I could pray for her.

And like that – when we get to heaven and I get to talk to the Lord about this online life, this interesting influence He’s given me - I do NOT want Him to say, “Hey! Great buckwheat bake recipe, but what about Me? What about the hurting women, the confused women, the women who I gave you influence with? You could have pointed them to Me”.

So you’ve got influence. 

And you’ve got the greatest Gift of all to give to the people He’s given you influence with. Don’t compare your influence, don’t lament that it’s not more. Every second you spend doing that, you spend wasting time you could be praying for what He wants you to do with it.

So let’s ask Him:

     Who have you given me influence with? What do you want me to share with them?