05.09 | Influence
Acts 27:1-26
‘After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.”’
Acts 27:21-22
We were fifteen miles off the shore of Bermuda, on a deep-sea fishing boat called the Gringo.
Having never used a fishing rod before, I was slow and awkward. While reeling in my first fish, the line suddenly went slack. Assuming I’d lost the fish, I reeled in the line, and yet, as I pulled it out of the water, half a fish (a wahoo—a long, silvery, fast-as-lightning fish that teem in the waters around Bermuda) was still there. A shark had bitten off the other half on the way in.
The captain, Joey Dawson, told me I was too slow. I didn’t care. Half a fish was better than no fish, and sharing my wahoo with a shark added to the experience.
It was a great day. The windswept wildness of the ocean. The freedom and fear of being out of sight of land in shark-infested waters. Awesome hair swept back in salty tufts. Fresh fish for dinner.
That day on the Gringo taught me something about boats.
Boats have a hierarchy, and the captain of a boat is in charge. Joey Dawson was the skipper. He was the expert. He took us to the waters that some sea-instinct told him was where the fish were. On the Gringo, Joey Dawson was king.
Paul’s story at this stage is like a movie script. It’s high-speed, big action, danger and adventure. It’s storm and shipwrecks and snake bites.
But we start to see something as Paul goes on the journey.
Look at what happens on the ship. The captain is in charge. He is the experienced sailor, whose sea-instinct is leaned on to make decisions. He knows his ship, he knows the seas, and he knows his crew. Paul, however, is a nobody—a scholar and prisoner. It’s no surprise that they ignore Paul’s advice.
And yet, as the journey goes on, it becomes increasingly Paul’s words that shape the direction of the journey. It is Paul’s words that they begin to listen to. And it is Paul’s words that will ultimately save every one of their lives.
The follower of Jesus is a person of influence. It’s not always the influence of experience or positional power. It is instead the influence that grows as we begin to learn who we are, and begin to understand the depth of the purposes of God in our lives. It is learning that God has positioned His people to have influence in their workplaces, on their streets, in their neighbourhoods and families. It is to begin to see that we carry solutions to the challenges that we come across—in prayer and wisdom and love—that nobody else is able to fix. That, in the heart of the Father we have access to insight, in words of prophecy, in words of Scripture, and in the presence of God upon our lives, that is to be found nowhere else.
What gave Paul this insight?
For this night there stood before me an angel…
God’s words may not (or may) come to us by an angel, and yet there is an interaction here of secret intimacy with the Lord and courageous speaking in public. For in the secret place we find the heart of the Father. In the secret place we bring Him that which burdens us. And in the secret place we seek the solutions that lead to the salvation of the ship in which we are sailing.
Reflect:
Consider a problem that I see in my networks. Ask the Lord for wisdom and insight. How might you be a person of influence, unto the bringing of life to those around you?
Pray:
Father,
When I think of influence,
I usually quite quickly
Reduce;
At least in my own eyes.
I see my failings;
I see my fragility;
I see my fear.
And yet, Lord,
I wonder that such things are not the point;
For influence
Is maybe less to do with ability,
And more greatly to do with intimacy—
For all influence
Is learning to reign with you.
And so, Father, establish
Your will,
And your plans,
And your Way
Upon the earth,
Through me
That this place may be aligned with your reign.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Job 38-39 | Psalm 106:6-23