My Sphere of Influence

tonight i got to speak at re:wired...the college ministry that meets at st james every monday night.  i didn't really have a "message" to share, i just shared my story over the last 3 months of my life.  i got to talk about my trip to south africa and as only God could orchestrate it, tonight it was announced that there is a trip being planned to south africa by some of the re:wired team and they're going in may 2010.  they didn't know i was speaking about south africa and i didn't know they would be announcing the dates of their trip tonight...but God knew.

tonight as i spoke, i got to thinking about my sphere of influence.  i was reminded when paul butler first started telling me about the aids pandemic and when i asked what i could do he said the best thing i could do was impact/educate my sphere of influence with the truth.

there have been a couple of examples lately that have proven that God has given me a sphere of influence and i need to use it to make a difference.

first is this blog.  i'm not going to give numbers because that's not important, but what is important is that there are people i have never met who are reading my blog.  i have a traffic analyzer set up and i can tell where people are located when they read this blog, and i can tell you that i've never been to a lot of the cities and countries that appear in the stats.  i've heard multiple stories how people have used some of my blog writings in classes, small groups and sermons.  i've received e-mails from people i've never met who tell me how much my blog has impacted their lives.  the original intent was for me to use this to journal my experiences, but God has used it for much greater things than I could have imagined.  He has used it to expand my sphere of influence.

another example is one that happened last week.  i use twitter and you can follow my twitter feed on the home page of this blog or at twitter.com/jasonanelson.  last thursday i "tweeted" that i was going to sing at a funeral and requested prayers for the family.  within 5 minutes, that "tweet" was "re-tweeted" by four other people who "follow" me.  i have 68 people who "follow" me on twitter.  those four other people have a combined "following" of 12,893 people.  so, what was intended to only be sent out to only 65 people was in fact sent out to nearly 13,000 people.

i've said it before, but i'm just a simple musician from dallas, texas.  i don't consider myself to be a celebrity or even an overly popular person.  but, God has entrusted me with a sphere of influence and the reality that is hitting me is that i have a responsibility to impact my sphere for good...for His purposes.

so, my question to you is this: what are you doing to impact your sphere of influence for the good?  you may think that you don't know a lot of people or that you're not a popular person, but the truth is you never know who is looking up to you for some kind of guidance, some kind of leadership, some way to make a difference.  the greatest need we have as human beings, besides feeling loved, is feeling a sense of purpose...a sense of being needed.  let me encourage you that you do have a purpose and you are needed...people need you every day and your purpose is to make their lives a little better than when you walked into it (before you make your own life better)!  Jesus made it very simple for us...love God (the easy part), and love people (using your sphere of influence to do so).

i only thought a few dozen people would read this blog, but hundreds read it every day and some people are using the blog to teach others who will probably never read this blog.  i only thought 68 people would read my prayer request for the funeral last week, but thousands ended up reading it.

someone in this world depends on you...don't let them down!

sobonana...

Comments

[Lisa]

Wow! Amazing stuff...

[Brian C]

You are speaking inspired truth. Great reminder, for this day is holy.