Choose your accomplices …

In setting your course for whatever you might want to accomplish in 2024, key will be choosing your accomplices.

That’s a phrase favored by Dr. Daniel Amen, psychiatrist and pioneer in brain health and brain imaging. Amen teaches that, among the things a person should do to have a healthy brain is the very real need of choosing your accomplices — in other words, choosing to have influential in your life people who will be supportive of you doing what it takes to have a healthy brain.

That’s important because so much of the influence we receive from people prompt us toward actions and behaviors that are not conducive to good brain health.

The same idea applies for other areas of life, including our followership of Jesus, which is why the Bible gives us this warning:

“Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for ‘bad company corrupts good character,'” 1 Corinthians 15:33.

Because bad influences corrupt good character, it’s important we choose carefully the people who will be our “accomplices” in living life. We often think of the phrase “sphere of influence” with regard to the influence we have with others, but it also works the other way … the accomplices in your life have influence with you. Bill Sullivan provides an interesting illustration about the “sphere of influences” we can fall under:

A sphere of influence (SOI) in astrodynamics and astronomy is the spherical region around a celestial body where the primary gravitational influence on an orbiting object is that body. This is usually used to describe the areas in our solar system where planets dominate the orbits of surrounding objects (such as moons), despite the presence of the much more massive (but distant) Sun

Now, let’s for just a moment consider the spiritual implications of this astrodynamic definition of “sphere of influence.”

When we’re conforming to the world, we might look at ourselves as moons. Despite the presence of a much more massive, much more powerful Son, a planet which is nearby influences or dominates our orbit, keeping us conforming to an orbit around that planet, rather than the significantly larger influence of the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

How does that look in real life? As followers of Christ, we know what the driving influence of our lives should be in this analogy — the sun, (or Son) which is the things of God, as outlined in His Word, which tells us all that we need to know about faith and practice.

But the reality is, because of the way we sometimes choose to conduct our lives, there are things, like planets in this analogy, that are closer to us, and these things often have a greater influence on our thinking, and thus on our behavior, than the purity of devotion to Christ.

Those you allow closest to you, who you invite into your life as “accomplices” for living life, have a sphere of influence with you. Based on who your current accomplices for life are, what can you anticipate will be their influence on your life in 2024?

Is that the kind of influence you should have, or do you need to make some changes to have the right kind of accomplices for living a godly life in 2024?

Scotty