This is the question I want everyone to answer: what influence are you having on the world? I don’t know specifically what your answer is going to be, but I do know that the answer is not “none.” Not for anyone reading this, or anyone in the world. We are all having an influence in some way, the question I want us to think about is “what” that influence is. This is important to understand because when you understand that you have power, you have to consider how you are going to use that power, whether for good or evil, and that is ultimately what having influence is all about.

It is true that we don’t all have the same amount of influence; some people have a great deal of power to impact others, and some have little. Nonetheless, even the hermit, alone in the desert cave walks the land and moves the energy of the soil touched. It may be small but we all have some level of influence.

In the Abrahamic scriptures we are reminded in multiple ways that we are all people who have the ability, indeed even the responsibility, to be a positive influence on the world. In the Old Testament, as Marty Solomon of Bema Discipleship likes to teach, the Israelites were placed at the crossroads of the ancient world that they would come into contact with people from all over and be able to demonstrate what faith, kindness, justice, and goodness looked like. In the New Testament Jesus exhorts his followers to be a “city on a hill,” a lamp not hidden but offering light to all who were stuck in darkness. In Buddhism the concept of the Bodhisattva is that an enlightened one intentionally chooses to stay in this realm to act as a guide for others who have not yet achieved enlightenment. We all have influence, we are all called to be an influence. What are we doing with that?

I confess that when I scroll the headlines of pop-culture I don’t know who half the people mentioned are. My girlfriend with whom I banter about celebrities reminds me that they are “influencers;” I don’t follow anyone on whatever the current thing is with which to follow people. When I ask someone what it is that so-and-so became famous for I am often met with a blank stare. They’re famous because they are famous, and now that fame is used to ‘influence’ others. Mostly to buy things. I know it also works with big personalities influencing someone to do something, and it’s not all bad of course (ice bucket challenge for instance) but a lot of it is (don’t eat the tide pods please). So I repeat: what are you doing with the influence you have?

I don’t have a million or a billion or many followers at all. But I interact with people everyday and I know I have a choice. I can be a lamp that offers a little light, maybe giving just enough for what you need right now, or I can be a searchlight drawing people in only to ask that something be given to me. Are you using the influence you have, the power you have, however much or little of it you have to do something good in the world? I know it sounds naive and perhaps trite. But are you? Are you showing people what kindness looks like? Are you an example of truth and justice? When you have the choice to smile or frown do you choose to smile? Do you say please and thank you, and when someone asks how you are do you actually answer and make room for them to answer too?

In the last week I saw three headlines that declared the death of a youngish person whose title was ‘influencer.’ The cynical part of me thought ‘well those companies are going to need someone else to peddle desire,’ and the kinder part of me prayed that the deceased was at peace, held in vast love. And I wondered what would happen if someone who had the ability to influence millions called on their followers to smile at three strangers each day for a month, to say thank you to the person you normally walk by doing that thing you don’t want to do, to say ‘I love you’ each time you see someone you love. I wonder what would happen if we all exerted our influence in that way?

What are you doing with the influence you have today?