Are you one of those people who sincerely want to make a difference in her/his world and yet feel like you’re losing traction and spinning your wheels? Do you feel like you have a lot of interests but very little influence?

If that’s you, then I’m inviting you to consider how much time you’re spending pursuing your interests versus how much time you’re actually spending engaging with the people around you.

I recently heard it said that our “interests can vastly outstrip our influence” if we’re not paying attention, and often our interests are things we can’t do anything about, at least the ones that take us on mindless bunny trails.

Take this scenario. You open your laptop and begin to read today’s headlines. Before you know it, you’re feeling awful and have succumbed to clicking and diving down several rabbit holes in your reading. As a result, you’ve now got to rush to work or rush your kids off to school or your preparation time for your upcoming teaching or meeting is greatly diminished.

What’s just happened? You’ve gone down a mindless rabbit hole and the time you could’ve spent actually making a difference be it through preparation or a face-to-face conversation, is now lost.

We live in a world of information overload, a world where copious amounts of information now live at your fingertips with just one click.  But here’s the reality,  it’s stealing our attention and our time away from making a real difference.

I’m speaking to myself here and the challenges that I’ve found with staying focused. In recent weeks, I’ve even gone so far as to purchase 1Focus for my laptop, using it to block social media apps and other distracting websites from my work time. I love it! Once I set the time blocking length, there is absolutely no way of undoing it.

If you really want to be a person of impact and influence. Take inventory of who the people are in your sphere of influence. Is it your friend(s)? Your spouse? Your family? Is it a small group or a community organization or a place you volunteer? Where do you work and what are you responsible for there? What is the work God is inviting you to do and are you doing it or are you distracted by things that you can’t control or influence?

Many of us have the privilege of choosing where we will pour out our lives and spend our time. Where’s yours going?

I would like to encourage you to be thinking about whether or not the actions you’re taking, the daily choices you’re making, are leading you towards greater influence and impact with the people and places around you.

For too long, I struggled with the fear that I will miss out on things. I’ve resolved myself to the fact that I will miss out on a lot of things and that’s OKAY. This lifetime will never afford me the opportunity to read all the books out there, to attend all the seminars I want to attend or to be involved in all the things that interest me. 

But what this lifetime, what God in his grace does allow, is for me to lead a fruitful life empowered by the Holy Spirit. I can choose to love my family well. I can choose to let go of things that I have no control over and I can choose to faithfully show up at work, at church, or in wisely chosen places of investment and be present - influencing and impacting through gifts and presence.

And it doesn’t matter one iota if those things are tweeted about, Instagrammed about, or made public in any way - the only one we are to elevate in this world is Jesus, not ourselves. (Yes, I confess, I love Instagram.)

Friend, choose your people, your place, and make a difference right where you are. And please, let’s not overindulge our interests at the expense of influence and impact and authentic relationships in the places right in front of us.

Pastor Carmen

Disclaimer: The advice and suggestions offered on this site are not substitutes for consultation with qualified mental or spiritual health professionals. The perspectives offered here are those of the author, not of those professionals with whom readers might have relationships as clients or patients. In crisis situations, readers are encouraged to contact these professionals for appropriate support and treatment if needed.