Day 15 — Influencers and What’s Real

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.”

— Ephesians 4:14 (BSB)

An influencer is, quite literally, someone whose job is to influence you. Some are honest, funny, talented, even inspiring. But it’s worth understanding the deal. Their income depends on your attention and your trust. The “honest review” may be paid for. The relaxed “day in my life” may have taken forty takes. The room may be rented, the face edited and the confidence rehearsed. That doesn’t make every influencer a liar. It does mean that what you’re seeing is a product, not a window.

Paul’s picture fits our feeds remarkably well. Little boats on the sea, “tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind.” One week the wind blows one way: this product will fix your skin, this routine will make you rich, this is what a real man or a real woman is like. Next week it blows another way: a new trend, a new outrage, a new kind of spirituality promising that you can get whatever you want if you believe hard enough. And an algorithm learns which winds move you and turns them up.

Being clever doesn’t make you safe from this. Amanda Smith, who became a well-known evangelist, was a sincere, intelligent teenager when she read one cleverly written book arguing against God. It quietly carried her off. She kept reading more of the same, and every book pulled the knot tighter. She said she felt snared. Ideas aren’t harmless just because they’re “only ideas,” and a hundred short clips can do what one long book did to her.

So how do you stay anchored when the wind is blowing?

Ask who benefits. If I believe this, or buy this, who gains? Money, followers and attention aren’t always bad motives, but they’re always motives.

Look at the fruit. Jesus said of teachers, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Over months and years, what does this person’s influence produce in you: kindness, honesty, faithfulness, gratitude? Or envy, contempt, fear and a constant feeling that your life isn’t enough?

Test it, even if it sounds Christian. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Plenty of content uses Jesus’ name to sell something He never said. Check it against the Bible itself, not against how many people liked it.

Slow down. “The simple man believes every word, but the prudent man watches his steps.” Before you share, buy or believe, wait a day. Most winds die down.

Follow some people you can actually see. Paul wrote, “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” He meant people who knew him up close. The best influences in your life are probably not on a screen: a grandparent, a teacher, an older Christian whose life you can watch on an ordinary Tuesday.

And remember, you’re an influencer too. A younger brother or sister, a cousin, a friend is watching what you love and how you live.

Think about it: Which online voice has the most influence on how you see yourself? What fruit has it produced in you?

Try this: Go through the accounts you follow. Unfollow or mute one that leaves you envious, anxious or cynical, and spend that time with a real person who makes you better.

Go deeper: Amanda Smith: An Autobiography (For Teens) — as a teenager, Amanda read one cleverly rigged book against God and felt herself “snared”; the way out wasn’t winning the argument alone at one in the morning but a real person who knew and loved her. Start with chapter 4, “The Argument That Almost Won”.

Lord, so many voices are trying to shape me, and I don’t always notice. Anchor me in what is true. Give me wisdom to test what I see, courage to walk away from what pulls me down, and people around me who point me to You. Make my own influence a good one. In Jesus’ name, Amen.