"Every life is a profession of faith, and
exercises an inevitable and silent influence"
Henri Frederic Amiel
Many years ago, in the TV series Cheers, in one particular episode there was a guest who showed up and this guy just started fixing everything. Over the course of the episode he was fixing things that had been neglected and by the end of the episode he had made the entire bar better. Probably his most important contribution was that he cleaned out the beer lines. Norm and Cliff were beside themselves at how well the beer tasted. I mean there was a noticeable difference. And then just as quickly as this guy showed up he left. But in the short time that he spent at the bar he made a huge difference. That’s how it is when people of influence show up in your life, they make a difference. They make a difference in the lives of people while they are there. And you can feel the effects of them long after they are gone.
As we look to in the Scriptures Esther is a great example of this; a young teenage girl thrust into a position that she didn’t ask for and given a responsibility that she wasn’t ready for. But as her people were on the verge of genocide, her cousin Mordecai petitioned her to save him, her, and the Jewish people.
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther had a choice to make; remain silent and her people perish? Or put her life on the line, approach the King and tell him about the sinister plot of the evil villain Haman. We know the end of the story. Esther used her influence to save the lives of her people. And to commemorate her heroic act Jews around the world remember her by observing Purim.
All of us have influence. The question for me and for you is how are we going to use our influence today? Are we going to use it to make people around us better? Are we going to use our influence today in such a way that when we are gone people will still feel the effects of our time with them?
An important reminder… people of influence make everyone better!