Articles
Six Degrees of Separation
Six Degrees of Separation
By Zeke Flores
In 1929, Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story titled “Chain-Links” in which he postulated that any two people on earth are connected through, at most, six degrees of separation. The idea is that anyone can be connected to anyone else through acquaintances or someone connected to an acquaintance by a separation of only six steps or lower. The process has come to be known as the “Six Degrees of Separation” and was further popularized by a 1990 play written by John Guare. Then came the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” in which the concept is to link actors to Bacon by six connections or less where the connection is whether any actor has appeared in a movie or commercial with Bacon. The search site Google even has an algorithm which when you type in “Bacon number” and an actor’s name in the search box, the site will return a “Bacon number,” that is, the degrees of separation between the actor and Bacon. Other popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter have also developed their own version to get in on the act.
It’s an unproven theory, of course, and all done in fun but the thought that we are all somehow connected to one another through such few connections is a dynamic that should cause us to pause and ponder: “How is my connection being used for good?”
Some 400 years ago Englishman John Donne wrote, “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind” What was true for Donne is true for you and me and everyone else on Earth. We are all joined, however loosely, to one another and what you do matters to someone else.
We recognize this as influence and we all have it to some degree or another and none of us is exempt from whether we want to exert it. Before he retired, basketball player Charles Barkley said, “I'm not a role model... Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.” Too late! He had already begun to influence a generation of fans who wanted to play like him, dress like him and - unfortunately - act like him.
The idea that anyone can live their life without influencing someone else - even a little - is not just naive, it’s also un-Biblical. “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Prov 13:20). Or, as another version puts it: “Be friends with those who are wise, and you will become wise. Choose fools to be your friends, and you will have trouble.”
Influence can reach far beyond established relationships. Some people buy a product because they liked or trusted the pitchman they saw in the commercial for that product. Others watch certain news programs because they trust the newscaster to give them the news truthfully. That’s why TV commercial producers and actors (as well as TV newscasters) work hard to present a persona on camera that will be liked and trusted. They know that will influence your habits.
Influence is a powerful thing and can be used for good or bad. It can be manipulated, exerted, accepted, and resisted. A person can influence others and be influenced himself - all for good or bad. So, the Bible warns about both aspects of it. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus reminds that our influence can be used to illuminate and preserve just as light and salt does (Matt 5:13-16). Conversely, the Bible also reminds us that we each have the responsibility to be aware of who/what will influence us. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the works of those who fall away; it shall not fasten its grip on me ... My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.” (Psalm 101:3, 6) Why? Because we’re all connected somehow even if only by six or fewer degrees.
If we want to connect with someone - and be connected by someone - in a positive way, shouldn’t we fill ourselves with God’s will and pass it on to others with the prayer that God will use it for His intended purpose?
A Moments Wisdom on Working
--Blessed is the man who is too busy to worry in the daytime, and too sleepy at night.
--Happiness depends chiefly on our cheerful acceptance of routine, on our refusal to assume, as many do, that daily work and daily duty are a kind of slavery.
--Anything that one does, from cooking a dinner to governing a state, becomes a work of art if motivated by the passion for excellence and done as well as it can be. A man who does his job in that spirit will be the one who gets the most satisfaction out of life.
--If you want to be not only successful, but personally, happily and permanently successful, then do your job in a way that puts lights in people's faces. Do that job in such a way that, even when you are out of sight, folks will always know which way you went by the lamps left behind.
--The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.
--The only place where success comes before work is a dictionary.
--There are two changeless sources of solid happiness: first, the belief in God, and second, the habit of hard work toward useful ends.
--Achievements ordinarily follow in due course when a person, after planning his work, works his plan.
--More men fail through lack of purpose than through lack of talent.
--The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
--When all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
Test Your Bible Knowledge of Agur’s Lists in Proverbs 30
1. List the four troubled generations _________, __________, ___________, & __________
2. What four things never say “Enough”? _________. _________, _________, & _________
3. What four things are too wonderful to understand? _______, _______, _______, & _______
4. What four things are unbearable? __________, __________, __________, & __________
5. What four things are small and wise? _________, _________, _________, & __________
6. What four things are majestic when they walk? _______, ________, _______, & ________
Upcoming Sermons
1/23/22 AM - “You are Complete in Him”; PM - “You Can’t Tell Me What to Do!”
1/30/22 AM - Report on the 2021 Work of the church at Trilacoochee; PM - Guest Speaker: Doug Sanders - Praise Him
2/6/22 AM - Paul’s Astounding Address to Agrippa; PM - Themed Singing: I KNOW: A Service on Conviction
2/13/22 AM - Thank You, Lord; PM - God Give Us Christian Homes: Instructions for Those Who Live Alone
2/20/22 AM - Undermining the Firm Foundation; PM - God Give Us Christian Homes: God’s Instructions for the Religiously Mixed Marriage
2/27/22 AM - “You are Complete in Him”; PM - The Bible is not a Science Textbook
