Who Has Influenced You?

Learning Lessons in Life

Have you ever considered which persons have most impacted your life? How have you become the person that you are today? Who has instructed you, challenged you, pushed you hard, molded your character, been your friend thru good times & bad? Have you taken the time to acknowledge them, thank them and try to reward all that they have poured into you? For many of us in life, our parents have been the biggest influences, and often a spouse has supported & comforted us.

It is a special treat to read the Epistles of St. Paul, who often starts and ends his letters to churches with words of thanks & appreciation to all those who had done special things for him, and shown God's grace by their actions. He spent much time, of course, teaching & training them.....but he paid a price of imprisonment, shipwreck and hardship for his beliefs and zeal.

For this writer, thankfully there have been a multitude of special folk who have brought insights, blessings and challenges down thru the years. Just a few of them are listed below:

1) Bill L. taught me that a person can do anything, with very little. He escaped from Russia, with his mom during WW II, ala the "Sound of Music" mountain route. He put himself thru med school, and has helped his daughters & nephews also become doctors. He also has served on church, seminary, hospital & college boards.

2) Mark F. found the Lord, and has done church planting now for over 20 years, in spite of severe pain after college wrestling & a professional football career. His music, sermons & intense prayer shows his deep love of how deep & intense our God is.

3) Francis S. studied all the great thinkers of this world, ad many fine artists & musicians, & then integrated a system of showing that God's truth overpowers the foolish arguments of secular thought. His many books and movies prodded young people and churches to consider God's truth vs. secular propaganda.

4) Leith A. became a pastor who always tries to look at the big picture, and who tries to get the most out of every church staff member and person in the pew. He has authored several books, pastored some growing, important churches, and served his graduate school, and now the country's evangelical leaders.

5) Chuck W. took a simple idea of economics and spread it to all the poor corners of the world, allowing simple peasant/village people to have a dream of their own business, making it work, and seeing it grow responsibly. This economic system has the highest rate of loan paybacks that banks can imagine!!

6) Bill B., a businessman, cares so much about all his employees, and works to see that they have stable jobs, good families, and can become responsible citiizens. He opens up his home to others, when so many folk consider their personal space very private.

7) Dale W. is one who thinks of every detail of a church's life and ministry. He attempts great things for God in every little decision that he makes, and knows how to challenge others to do the same. He gave up a very successful pastorate to go serve in poor Indonesia, trying to help folk in another culture to become Christ-like leaders of their people.

8) Larry H. was a consummate professional in the news business. Yhe never wanted the focus to be on himself, but rather on others, who all had stories to tell. He always attempts at getting the full story, and to have it corroborated by at least 2 or 3 other sources.

9) Vernon G. liked to read everything that he could get his hands on, and still does, well into his 90's. He always finds some thoughts that are worth digesting, re-hashing, and even questioning. He loves to bring others into the thought process and to debate points, no matter what the subject matter.

10) Reg B. was a businessman who always liked to work hard, make the right deals, and to dream of what could be done next. Sadly, when he crashed his plane, seeing his wife & 2 sons killed in the wreck, he had to fight thru pain, injuries and tremendous loss & grief. But he still fought back to regain health, dreamt a new dream, and rebuilt his life, affecting his church, his community, and offering jobs and housing to many, many other folk.

11) Os G. grew up in the Far East, as the son of missionaries. His search for the Truth has allowed him to dialogue with and debate the great thinkers of our time. His compassion in Christ has even brought him to be called in as advisor to the President of the USA in a time of personal crisis. In reading his multitude of books, one sees that he tries to debate all of world's value systems against God's Ultimate Truth.

12) Vern C. is a long time friend, who discovered early in life that his family carried the gene for a crippling disease. Somehow, God spared him from having the illness, but yet he has lived life one day at a time, making new challenges for himself and carrying his family & friends with him in an incredible journey of things to learn, places to go visit, activities to do, and a Lord to be served.

13) Darrow M. took his humble beginnings as a construction laborer to study with some great philosophers of this age, and then to transform his studies into something very practical. Now he has shared his studies thru workshops for churches in the world's poorest countries, so that they find a village/town need, expose God's love to that situation, and work diligently to make a Christ-like difference, where folk will be attracted to the Gospel because of their action.

Can you make a list of people significant in your life and note how that has helped shape you? Even a more profound question is:
In what way are you helping influence others to grow & be better humans?

Torrey Brinkley