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“ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants.” – Psalm 89:14.
I used to think influence belonged to other people.
You know the type—people with a platform, a microphone, a following, or at least a personality that fills a room. I figured influence required volume. Presence. Something noticeable. I, on the other hand, have always felt more like background noise than center stage. So the question would creep in from time to time, usually when I was feeling particularly ordinary:
Does Nate really have any influence at all?
One morning, not especially spiritual or dramatic, I was standing in line for coffee. The place was busy, the kind of busy where nobody makes eye contact, and everyone is mentally rehearsing their order like it’s a final exam. In front of me was a young guy fumbling with his wallet, clearly short on cash. He kept counting, recounting, sighing.
I didn’t want it to get awkward. I didn’t want attention. But something nudged me—quiet, persistent. So I leaned forward and said, “Hey, I’ve got this.”
He turned, surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah. No problem.”
It wasn’t a big moment. No applause. No halo descending from heaven. Just a simple transaction and a quiet “thank you.” He grabbed his coffee, gave a small nod, and walked out.
Honestly, I forgot about it within the hour.
But a few days later, I ran into him again. Same place. This time, he spotted me first.
“Hey,” he said, walking over. “You probably don’t remember me…”
I didn’t, at least not right away.
“You bought my coffee the other day,” he continued. “I was having a rough morning. Actually… a rough season.” He paused, then added, “That small thing? It kind of reset my day. Made me think maybe things weren’t as heavy as they felt.”
I stood there, holding my own cup, not quite sure what to say.
He went on. “I’ve been trying to do that for someone else every day since.”
And just like that, something clicked.
Influence isn’t always loud. It doesn’t always announce itself. Most of the time, it doesn’t even ask permission. It just flows out of the small, ordinary choices we make when nobody’s watching—or when we assume nobody’s paying attention.
Jesus once said we are the light of the world, not the spotlight of the world. Light doesn’t argue. It doesn’t perform. It simply shows up and pushes back the darkness, inch by inch.
I think I had been measuring influence all wrong. I was looking for impact I could see, results I could track, moments I could point to and say, there—that’s where I made a difference. But real influence often works like seeds in the ground. You don’t see the growth right away. Sometimes you don’t see it at all.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. So do I really have any influence?
Yeah. I do.
Not because I’m Nate. Not because I have it all figured out. But because God uses ordinary people in ordinary moments to do extraordinary things—quietly, steadily, often invisibly.
And so do you.
The real question isn’t whether you have influence. It’s what you’re doing with the influence you already have.
Discussion Questions:
- Where in your everyday life (home, work, church, routines) might you be underestimating the influence you already have, and what is one small, intentional way you could use that influence this week?
- Think of a moment when someone’s simple act impacted you more than they probably realized—how does that reshape the way you view your own ordinary choices and interactions?