Influence vs. Approval; where it’s landed me.

During the drama with this man last week, I came across an older tweets that people were reposting…

Hey leaders, never trade INFLUENCE for APPROVAL. Parents, same goes for you!

— AndyStanley (@AndyStanley) February 13, 2014

I read it over and over, and then I saved it and shared it with anyone who would listen. This is some game-changing stuff, you guys. Let it marinate a little bit.

Jessi recently spoke into this idea in the area of ministry on her blog. Chances are, you’ll be seeing it time and again this year from the Influence Network. It’s a theme for our core team and a new anthem for my life. It’s very easy for us to grab hold of the influence message and feel that it involves us doing that new thing or speaking there or working with them. It most certainly involves more people, more popularity, and a more visible platform, right? I’m guilty of it. I recently shared that my goal is to go part-time at the hospital by the end of this year in order to make more time for ministry, and I’ve nearly let it consume me. I should be writing more, networking more, pitching more if this is going to happen. I’ve been planning and striving and it’s easy to forget to look at my feet. My ministry is right here. There are folks right here within arm’s reach whom I tend to ignore or even neglect, when I try to widen my influence elsewhere. These relationships potentially suffer each time I miss the point and misplace the focus.

I don’t want to be about that anymore. I want a Kingdom focus, one that does not consider itself with people’s opinions or definitions of success. After all, even perfection wouldn’t be enough to earn me any more or any less approval from my Heavenly Father. I just want to be a good steward of the opportunities and the people He’s given me, glamorous or not. Whether I’m speaking to grown-ups from a stage or whispering to a toddler on a potty or meeting a nervous new nurse at work, I just want to point to Jesus. Can you imagine the influence found in hundreds of whispers? Thousands of one-on-one coffee shop talks? Millions of life-giving emails? It’s what we Christians call resurrection power. We have the opportunity to see lives changed, through just a little bit of leverage and a whole lot of the Holy Spirit.

This is what it means to make much of Jesus, right where we are. This is literally what our network is about. Hear me say that the grass is not greener. Each of us has a story to tell and a mess in her closet. These days, I’m telling my story from my messy mud room. Care to join me?