In todays world, being influenced by other people is a day to day thing. I myself know that when I get on social media and I see an “influencer” sharing a post about a product they love and all the great things about it, I’m very quick to click that link and most likely purchase that product.
It can be as simple as just having someone who tells me it’s great that makes me believe I must need that and I will buy it. For example, these cups. They are cups, that’s it. As you can see, I also was easily influenced. These cups are $40+, for a cup. Stupid, I know. I have plenty of cups in my cabinet but somehow I jumped on that bandwagon because everyone seemed like they liked them and then I had to have one. Five of them now actually.
My husband tells me all the time that we have too many but yesterday I bought two more because they were smaller, pretty and I could drink my coffee from them and don’t want to with the bigger ones. I told myself if I got these smaller ones then I’d get rid of my other cups that are the same size as the new ones I just bought because these are prettier than my other ones and I will use them more. As I think about the things I get all because other people do, it really just seems crazy how easily I am influenced.
Now I want you to think about something. Influencers talk about billions of different things and products everyday and people immediately go and buy those things or read those things or whatever it is they bring attention to. Can you imagine if that thing people were influencing was Jesus? What if when you get on social media, all you hear about is the Bible and the wonderful things Jesus has done? What if you went to Target and instead of seeing Stanley Cups flying off the shelves it was The Bible. What if people set their alarms for Devotionals to read instead of restocks to try to buy another cup. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Why are we not as easily influenced to do the things Jesus tells us to do but we will do whatever the strangers on the other side of the phone tells us to do or get. I’m talking to myself just as much as I am anyone else reading this. Can you imagine though if the tables turned and Jesus was the one being talked about all over social media? If Jesus was the one people told other people to Follow? The world needs Jesus more than another cup added to our cabinets.
So the next time you open up social media or walk around a store or see an influencer pushing another product just imagine if that thing was Jesus. Maybe even make that the thing you try to influence people to. We were called to go and make disciples and we need to do that. You don’t need thousands of followers to Follow Jesus and share His love. When people think about you, wouldn’t you want it to be, “there’s the girl/guy who loves Jesus”, not “there’s the girl/guy who sells blah blah blah”? You never know who looks to you as an “Influencer”.
Katelyn Streetman 