Today's ODB devotional (http://odb.org/) is called "Sphere of influence". It talked about several people that had extraordinary realms of influence for their position in life. Do each of us realize our sphere of influence? How many people do you see a day and how many see you? Do people learn things about you without even talking to you? I have a joke with one of my minister's that I don't like to wear our church t-shirt to things like the AIDS Walk or Pride parade because it means I have to be nice to people! I don't want to cast a bad light on the church! Our conversations evolved into the obvious "shouldn't we act the same way whether or not we have the t-shirt on"? Of course, the answer is yes! I will work on that.
The 2010 AIDS Walk was held this morning in Columbus at the beautiful Franklin Conservatory grounds. I am ashamed to say that I hadn't walked in a few years. I am not sure if the turn out was good or bad. All I know is that it was HOT, though a gentle breeze made the short walk bearable. I walked with our church group wearing the church t-shirt (and yes, I was nice). I thought of all my current and former friends with the disease. I promised myself (and them) that I would make more of an effort to raise money for the CATF. I heard that the number of cases is increasing and the contributions are decreasing. Not good.
Lastly, I started arranging music again this week for a male trio at church. I hadn't done that in over twenty years. Wow. Where does the time go? I plan to finish the draft of the second song this afternoon. We plan to sing at least one of the songs at church on Aug 15. The two songs are It is Well with my Soul and He.
One of the best things I ever learned about "sphere of influence" was that its opposite is "sphere of concern," i.e., my sphere of influence being "that which I personally can change or affect" and my sphere of concern being "that which worries, angers, or otherwise preoccupies me but which I cannot personally change or affect." Most people prefer to live within their sphere of concern and avoid their sphere of influence, because it allows them to vent emotion and express opinion without having to take responsibility. The ironic aspect of this phenomenon is, the more time one spends in one's sphere of concern, the more one's sphere of influence shrinks, and the more time one spends in one's sphere of influence, no matter how small initially, the more it will grow. How about them apples!
ReplyDeleteThat is very deep! Thank you! For me, I think the sphere of concern is where I had problems with codependency. My new definition of codependency is where a person is in your sphere of concern, but not in your sphere of influence!
ReplyDeleteI think that's a pretty good definition. I've experienced something similar.
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