Who has influenced you for the cause of Jesus Christ?
Who has been a dominant, guiding influence in the progress of your faith?
The list is invariably substantial (and my best guess is that in heaven when our eyes are opened to the vastness of the expanse of God’s grace, the list will be greater than we recognize now).
It is worth thinking about. Take even a few minutes now, or today to begin to put together a list. Keep it close-by so that you can add to it as additional names come to mind. Let me offer a few suggestions —
- How did you mother and father influence you spiritually? Was there a grandparent? sibling? aunt or uncle or cousin?
- How about your neighbors? Was there a family that extended kindness to you when you were alone? A coach? A teacher? A school friend?
- Was there someone who took you to church when you were in college or the military and without dependable transportation?
- Were there pastors who took a particular interest in you and gave you good things to read and even just their own time?
- Was there a boss who lived a life of Biblical integrity and he used that forum to help you? A co-worker? Or even an employee of yours who boldly saw you as more than just a provision for his livelihood, but also as an opportunity for the gospel?
- Was there a friend who was willing to speak boldly of your need for the gospel? Or someone who prayerfully held you accountable to hold on to Biblical truth?
- Who were the people in your church(es) who you might not have known otherwise, but who willingly poured Biblical knowledge and encouragement into you? Sunday School teachers? Small group leaders? Co-workers in some ministry?
- Who are the “dead theologians and saints” — influential men and women from previous generations and centuries — who have influenced your life through their writings.
As you peruse your list of a few dozen names, a number of different patterns undoubtedly begin to emerge — realities relating to seasons in time and life, the types of people that are most helpful to you, places that had a particular influence on you — but here is one I particularly want to draw to your attention: almost all the people who have influence you have undoubtedly been ordinary.
That is not to say that they have been inadequate, for the terms “ordinary” and “inadequate” are hardly synonymous. It is to say that they have been faithful to the task given to them by God regardless of the expansiveness of their ministries. They may have been only known by a Sunday School class of three, but they were faithful to teach you and two others. They may have never had a formal ministry of any kind, but they were always faithful to pray for you and point you to Scripture that you have needed for a particular moment.
To say that someone is “ordinary” is simply to acknowledge that they have not been gifted extra-ordinarily with spiritual endowments or ministry. But it is to say that they have used the gifts and ministries they’ve been given. And you have many times been the beneficiary of that kind of faithfulness.
As you think of the people who have influenced you, at least two responses remain — give thanks to God for these gifts of grace in your life, and go and follow their pattern of faithful service by extending and expanding your ministry to others.
Words of Grace 