Choosing Your Circle of Influence

One of the people I follow online is Dr. James DiNicolantonio. His name may be a lot to pronounce, but I really appreciate how he talks about holistically having a healthier lifestyle. He's worth the follow. 

He posts lots of different ways to improve your life, and recently he posted the following advice:

On a practical level, I certainly agree with him. But I noticed something about this post didn't quite sit right with me. 

I realized the problem with this idea is when we add a moral dimension to it. 

We can think that purity, holiness, or being a good Christian means hanging out with the right people and avoiding the wrong people. The wrong people can be those who don't attend church enough, don't believe certain mainstream ideas, don't behave according to the norms, or lately, those who drink Bud Light.

We avoid them to spiritually elevate ourselves.

When we use this logic in this way it produces some of the ugliest versions of Christianity. Thankfully, that's not the application or context in which Dr. James offered his thought. But for those of us trying to follow Jesus, I think we would do well to understand this distinction.

It reminds me of an incredible idea from Richard Beck.

"Rather than the unclean polluting the clean, we see, in Jesus’ touch, the clean making the polluted pure. Here, in Jesus, we see a reversal, a positive contamination. Contact cleanses rather than pollutes." Richard Beck, Unclean

The phrase 'positive contamination' is game-changing. Jesus hung out with the wrong people according to the standards of His day. And He had the negative reputation to prove it.

"The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’" Luke 7:34, NLT

Jesus wasn't worried about being negatively affected by the people He spent time with. Just the opposite happened. The people around Him became clean. That's the profound beauty of positive contamination. We don't have the same ability as Jesus, but if we plan on following Him we would do well to take a cue in this regard. We should have the same effect on the people around us, which obviously can't happen if we separate ourselves from them. (On a related note, this is why our family strongly supports public school).

Who are you spending time with? Or, to get specific, when was the last time someone criticized you for having too wide of a sphere of influence? If Christians acted more like Jesus, it seems we'd be known for hanging out with the 'wrong' people.

If you're trying to get in better shape or trying to quit smoking, choose your partners wisely. 

But don't let this thinking isolate you from people.