When Cecil B. DeMille was a nine year old boy, and old
preacher came to Echo Lake, New Jersey to conduct a
series of meetings. Young DeMille attended every morning,
but one cold rainy morning he was the only one who showed
up. He wondered if that man would preach to one small
boy. DeMille describes that unusual scene-
If he preached under those circumstances I felt that he
was a man of God. If he dismissed the service I felt that he
would be false. And he did preach, although it was a very
short sermon. Then he came down to the alter railing of the
church and invited me to come up. He said: "My audience
no doubt noticed that I did not take the collection at the
usual time. I now invite my audience to come up and put
the offering the plate." I walked up proudly to that alter,
put my nickel in the plate and, as I did so, that old
gray-haired preacher put his hand on my head and prayed
a prayer in which he lifted my name to God. I shall never
forget the feel of that old preacher's hands on my head. I
have en-joyed the greatest honors of life. Here in
Hollywood I have met the great of the earth. But I have
never had any thrill as great as the feel of that preacher's
hands on my head. It was a kind of ordination. That had
much to do with my interest in producing Biblical motion
pictures. Millions have watched the Biblical movies of Cecil B.
DeMille, but nobody even knows the name of the old
preacher who put his hand on him as a boy, and thus,
became a major influence in his life. Because of the impact
of influence, that hand that touched the little boy, touched a
whole world of people. The same story can be told on the
negative side of influence. Vincent Teresa in his book My
Life In The Mafia, tells of how his uncle would ask him to
shine his shoes, and then give him ten or fifteen bucks. This
made a deep impression on him, and he said to himself, I
don't know what he does, but what ever it is I
want to do it. That was the beginning of his desire to be a
gangster.
Every biography written is a story of influences, and
their impact on lives. The story of Ruth is no exception.
Ruth abounds in illustrations of the impact of influence.
Ruth would never have become a part of God's plan, and
never would have become a believer and a part of Israel, a
part from the influence of Naomi. Naomi, of course, would
never have been heard of without Ruth, and neither would
have been heard of without Boaz. Everybody in this story
has a major influence on everybody else in the story. But
there would be no story at all without the influence of
Naomi. She is the key influence, but the influence was
mutual.
Influence can be a two way street, as it was for Naomi
and Ruth. Naomi influenced Ruth to come to God, and
Ruth influenced Naomi, and made her a famous personality
for all time. Bach's, the Passion According To St. Matthew
is generally acclaimed as the greatest choral work ever
written in German. Bach performed it once in his day, and
it was put away where it lay unperformed for 100 years. In
1829 Felix Mendelssohn obtained a copy of it and revived it.
He unleashed a title wave of enthusiasm for Bach that has
never ebbed to this day, and so Mendelssohn had great
influence on Bach's fame, but Bach even more on
Mendelssohn, for the 20 year old composer was converted
to faith in Christ by his exposure to Bach. They lifted each
other, just as did Ruth and Naomi.
The word influence has a fascinating origin. It originally
referred to an ethereal fluid thought to flow from the stars,
which affected the actions of men. It is of interest that the
only use of the word in the King James Version refers to
this connection. In Job 38:31 we read God's question to
Job-"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleides."
Pleides is a group of stars. The idea behind a influence is
that it is a power which produces an effect without any
apparent force or direct authority.
If you tell your child to get the garbage down to the road,
that is not an influence, for that is a direct order by which
you are exerting the force of authority. Now is you
habitually get up from the table after each meal, and went
to the garbage, and scraped off your plate, and one day
your child got up and did the same thing, without ever
being told, that would represent the power of influence.
Influence tends to be an unseen, and unconscious means by
which actions and attitudes are changed. It is a flow of
power from one person to another with no visible link.
Naomi had this kind of influence on Ruth. Ruth was a
Gentile who worshipped the pagan gods of the Moabites.
But something happened when she came under the
influence of Naomi. Ruth was ready to renounce her
family, her nation, her gods, and her life, in order to remain
with Naomi. We are compelled to read between the lines
here. Naomi cannot counteract the impact of her influence
on Ruth. She tried to get her to go back to her old life and
culture, but Ruth had been so deeply touched by Naomi's
life, and her love for God, that her present depression and
negative spirit could not quench Ruth's desire to be like her,
and to be with her.
It is wonderful that our positive influence can be so
strong that we cannot reverse it by our negative influence or
authority. That is what we see here in chapter 1. Naomi
said in her sorrow, and so blinded by grief, I have come
back empty. Someone may have pointed out that Ruth was
standing there, but Naomi, at this point, could not see the
potential of Ruth. She had done her best to get rid of her,
like a stray dog following her home. She did not realize that
Ruth was her greatest treasure. She did not see her as a
asset at all, but as a liability, and so she says, I came back
empty.
Henry Drummond said, "There is nothing exaggerated
more than the power of our words, and there is nothing we
exaggerate less than the effect of our influence." Here is
Naomi feeling empty and worthless, with no assets, but
because we know the impact of her influence on history, we
know that she is rich in resources in Ruth. We want to
learn from this wealthy woman weeping over her poverty
some precious truths about influence that can change our
perspective on life and history, and our role in it. The first
thing we see is-
I. INFLUENCE IS INVISIBLE.
It is like gravity which is everywhere having an effect on
all that is, yet we are not conscious of it. It is like salt in
food, making a difference but not seen. Naomi was not even
conscious of the fact that she was having an enormous
influence on Ruth. Horace Bushnell, the great preacher of
the 1800's, preached a sermon titled Unconscious Influence,
which has had a great influence on Christian thinking. He
used the text where Peter and John are running to the
empty tomb of Christ, and John, being younger, out ran
Peter, and got there first, and stood there gazing in. But
Peter in his unusual impetuous way did not stop and gaze in
reverent awe, but dashed past John right into the tomb, and
the text in John 20:8 says, "Then went in that other
disciple." Influenced by Peter John let down his resistance
and went in. Peter did not shout, "Come in John," but
Peter was just doing his own thing, and unconsciously
influenced John to follow.
The point of Bushnell's sermon is that we all are unconsciously
influencing others, and so, paradoxically, we
need to be more conscious of our unconscious influence. We
need to be aware of the invisible flow of energy from us to
others that motivates them to take action, or develop
attitudes. This invisible flow of influence makes it possible
for even the most gentle and obscure person to have an
impact on other people. Andrew Robinson, one time
chairman of the board of Westinghouse, tells of the strange
experiment he saw performed in their lab.
A great steel bar eight feet long and weighing 1000
pounds was suspended by a slender chain from the ceiling.
Parallel to it was a small cork suspended by a silk thread.
The cork was slung into the steel bar, and, of course, had no
effect whatever. But after about ten minutes of constant
swinging of that cork into the steel bar, a little quiver could
be seen, and after two more minutes a visible vibration could be
detected.
After 25 minutes the steel bar began to swing like
a huge pendulum. The experiment proved that even the
least likely force, with no visible influence can by
persistence have an impact that is visible. This works with
people as well as matter. Obscure people often become the
primary influence in the lives of famous people. Ruth has a
book of the Bible named after her, but she never would
have been known had it not been for the influence of Naomi.
Wordsworth is a name we all have heard, but who is
aware that this great poet was deeply influenced by his
younger sister Dorothy. Her tenderness and sweetness as a
person molded his nature, and opened his mind to the
influence of poetry. He lifted the race by his poetry, but he
was lifted himself by the gentle nature of one the world does
not know. He wrote of her-
She gave me eyes, she gave me ears,
And humble cares, and delicate fears;
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears,
And love, and thought, and joy.
Henry Martyn began one of the great missionaries to the
Indians, and his biography has been read by masses of
people. But nobody ever heard of his special friend.
Martyn was a weakling with a delicate and nervous
temperament. He never went out for sports, and the boys
took pleasure in teasing him. One older boy took it upon
himself to protect Martyn from his tormentors, and help
him with his lessons. He was a rather backward student,
and needed the help. This friendship went right though
college. Martyn was fitful, unstable, and temperamental,
but his bigger friend was steady, patient, and hard working.
He kept pushing Martyn to work hard, not for the praise of
man, but for the glory of God. He kept him from evil
company, and got him through school.
Martyn went on to become one of the heroes in the
history of Christian missions. His friend passed into
obscurity. His influence on Martyn, however, made him a
key person in Christian history, even though his name is not
even known. It is known to God. He is another example of
the invisibility of much of the Christian influence in history.
The goal and meaning of life is not just to make a name for
ourselves, but to be part of the flow of invisible influences
that help all we come into contact with to be all they can be
for the glory of Christ. We will come back to this as we
look at the second truth-
II. INFLUENCE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.
You cannot just influence one person, and that is the end
of it. Naomi influenced Ruth to commit her life to God and
His people, but it did not end there. In fact, it did not end
anywhere, for the impact of that influence is going on right
now as we study this book, and will keep on to the end of
time, and through all eternity. There is no end to influence.
It starts as a invisible flow, and becomes a river cutting a
path through history.
Because Naomi influenced Ruth to become a godly
woman, the name Ruth, though it had its origin in the
pagan land of the Moabites, has become one of the most
popular of Christian names. Ruth is the seventh most
popular name in America, with over one and one half
million bearing that name. Ruth gave this name a sense of
dignity for all the rest of history. Her influence, by simply
being a committed and loyal person, has become
inexhaustible. Jezebel did that same thing on the negative
side. Her ungodliness made her name unusable for the rest
of history. The study of influence reveals just how tremendous the
trivial can be in its impact. Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his
wife were being moved from one prisoner of war camp to
another. They were so heavily laden with baggage they
could hardly move. Just then a poor cripple came along
and offered to help them. He had no baggage, for he
possessed nothing. Schweitzer says in his autobiography
that as they walked along in the scorching sun, "I vowed to
myself that in memory of this cripple I would in the future
keep a look out for heavily laden people, and give them a
hand.
Little could that unknown cripple realize how his act of
kindness would influence history. Forty years after this
incident Schweitzer was in Chicago changing trains to go to
Aspen, Colorado. As he stood on the station platform being
questioned by reporters, for he had become a world famous
personality, he saw a woman carrying a heavy suitcase. He
immediately excused himself and asked the woman if he
could help her. He got her to her train, and then returned
to where the group, but they were all gone. Each of the
reporters, seen Schweitzer helpfulness, were assisting others
with heavy suitcases. Who knows how many acts of
kindness have been generated by that one act of a cripple
many years ago. The potential of any act of love is
inexhaustible.
Canon Moseley said, "It is astonishing how much good
goodness makes. Nothing that is good is alone, nor anything
bad; it makes others good or others bad-and then others ,and
so on, like a stone thrown into a pond, which makes
circles that make other wider ones, and then others, till the
last reaches the shore.....Almost all the good that is in the
world has, I suppose, thus come down to us from remote
times, and often unknown centers of good." Every act of
love we do can start a chain reaction that will never end.
Gandhi, in his autobiography, tells of how a Christian
author greatly influenced his life and thinking. He writes,
"Tolstoy's, The Kingdom Of God Is Within You,
overwhelmed me. It left an abiding impression on me."
Tolstoy not only influenced this man who changed the
history of India, but he became one of the most influential
men of letters in Europe. Solzhenitsyn says, one of the main
reasons Christianity has survived among Russian
intellectuals is the novels of Tolstoy. The question is, who
influenced Tolstoy to become a Christian? The answer is
another lesson on the inexhaustibility of influence.
Leo Tolstoy never knew his mother. She died when he
was an infant, and his father died when he was nine. He
was an orphan boy thrown into a very wild and turbulent
world. He was taught there was no God, and that all
religion was merely man's invention. Every time he sought
to chose a pathway of goodness, he was laughed at and
ridiculed. When he gave way to his lowest passions, and
chose evil, he was praised and encouraged. He was fast on
his way to becoming a totally godless and flesh centered
person. Then his aunt Tatiana stepped into the picture.
The book of Ruth is about how relatives influence one another.
Relatives are the key people in most lives, and so it
was with Tolstoy. She became the mother he never had.
She loved him and gave his guidance.
Tolstoy wrote later in life, "Aunt Tatiana had the
greatest influence on my life. It was she who taught me,
whilst yet in my childhood, the moral joy of a pure
affection, not by words, but by her whole being, and imbued
me with admiration for all good things. I saw how happy
she was in loving and I understood the joy of love. That was
the first lesson. And the second was that a quiet and lonely
life may never the less be an exquisitely beautiful one."
This unknown, unsung, never to be acclaimed, aunt,
changed the course of history by her influence on one child,
who, a part from her, would have been part of the world's
problem instead of part of the answer. The impact of her
influence flows on, and has an inexhaustible potential.
Naomi only influenced one person, as far as know, to
surrender her life to God, and that was Ruth. But the
impact of that one life will go on having inexhaustible
influence on lives all over the world.
Only a small percentage of people ever become famous,
and so it cannot be God's plan that becoming famous is the
goal of life. There has to be a purpose and a plan that all
people can get in on, and that plan, it seems to me, is in the
impact of influence. All people have influence for good or
evil. If they are a tool for the kingdom of God, they will
have an influence for good that will have effects for all
eternity. Every child of God is an influential person, for
however insignificant their influence seems, they pass on the
positive influence of the past, and add to the positive
influence of the future, and so they become a part of the
over all plan of God.
Think of that one lonely Samaritan traveling down a
dangerous road nearly 2000 years ago. He had to make a
choice, either to pass by or stop and help a beaten man.
Why he stopped we do not know. Someone in his past
influenced him to be caring and compassionate. For all we
know, he had been helped by someone who found him in the
same condition some years before. Whatever the influence,
his act of love for a stranger has influenced all the rest of
history. There are Good Samaritan Hospitals, Good
Samaritan Nursing Homes, and Good Samaritan Ministries
of all kinds.
The whole world has been lifted by one man's kindness.
We do not even know his name, but he was an Atlas of
influence, for he lifted the whole world when he lifted that
helpless victim. We have no record of what that victim did
in gratitude, but he could very well have become a social
worker ministering to people who were victims of crime.
For all we know, the world is full of people with compassion
who have been influenced by this one unknown man. Only
the omniscient mind of God could trace the impact of his
influence, but we know it is inexhaustible.
All we know for sure about this man is that he suffered.
Sometimes that is enough to influence all of history. Dr.Touree
grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in an
immigrant Finish family of ten children. His mother
suffered so with Rheumatoid Arthritis that he longed, as a
little boy, to become a doctor. They were so poor, but he
struggled for years to get through school, and finally was in
practice for himself. One of the first babies he delivered
was born an orphan, for the mother died and there were no
relatives. He had compassion on the child, and this
suffering scene moved him to specialize in Pediatrics. He
started the Flint Area Health Foundation, and it became the
largest public foundation in Michigan.
He gave his life to the care of needy children, and helped
thousands of them through troubled times. There are
hospital wings, and schools, named for Dr. Turee all over
Michigan. Had his mother not suffered, her son may never
have had the influence he needed to give his life to medicine.
By her hurting, she sent a river of help through history to
heal the hurts of others. This is how God can work in all
things for good. It is by influence that even bad things can
influence others for good. At his retirement party, Dr.
Turee said, "Many people ask me why did I devote my life
to the poor and disadvantaged when I could be in private
practice and be a wealthy man? I tell them knowing from
whence I came, and the fact that the greatest healer of all
time, Jesus Christ, said when you do it unto the least of
these you have done it to me-it is enough." Compassion for
his mother got him going, and the compassion of Christ for
all kept him going, and the result is inexhaustible influence
flowing all through history.
The thing we need to see is that the rivers of influence in
history are just like the rivers of nature. They are fed by
many small tributaries-little streams that make it what it is.
All great and famous people are what they are because of
the influence of people that are never known. We all know
of the Mississippi, Missouri, Amazon, and Nile Rivers, but
who knows the names of the millions of streams that flow
into them, making them mighty rivers? We do not have the
slightest idea who it was in Naomi's past who made her such
a godly woman. Who could have made her so strong that
even in adversity and great loss she could so express her
faith that a pagan girl would want to be like her. Whoever
it was is a part of the inexhaustible influence of this book of
Ruth. And who influenced that person, and so on, and so on
it goes. It is impossible to trace influence, but all of us are
having it. And our goal is not just to be all that we can be,
but to influence others to be all they can be, for such
influence, however invisible and unknown, will produce
inexhaustible fruit for the kingdom of God. The third thing
we want to see is-
III. INFLUENCE IS INEVITABLE.
You cannot avoid being an influence. Even if you go
away and hide as a hermit, that will influence people.
There is no escape, for just being alive makes us an
influence in history. Since it is inevitable, we need to make
the best of it. Influence is like the weather. It may be good,
or it may be bad, or it may be just so so, but it always is.
We have never experienced non-weather, nor can we
experience non-influence. It goes with the territory,
because it is a part of life.
We are all products of influence. The very fact that we
are here is because of influence. What we have for dinner is
also due to influence, and the list could go on and on. We
are products of influence, and we are producing influence.
There is a never-ceasing flow of energy both to us and from
us, that is making us and history what it is, for good or evil.
Sarah Bolton wrote,
The smallest bark on life's tumultuous ocean
Will leave a track behind forever more;
The lightest wave of influence, once in motion,
Extends and widens to the eternal shore.
We are all making history, and influencing eternity,
whether we want to or not. The purpose of the Biblical
record is that we might see how people of the past have
influenced history, and imitate their virtues, and avoid their
mistakes. The practical purpose of Ruth is that we might be
influenced by it to see the impact of influence that any of us
can have, and, therefore, be committed to make it an impact
for the glory of God, and the fulfillment of His purpose in
history. May God give us the mind of Christ, and the
fullness of His Spirit that we might be more aware of the
impact of our influence.
