Hey my friend welcome to the latest edition of my newsletter, thanks for being here! If this blesses you, share it with someone who needs it. They can sign up free at thelowkeychristian.com/newsletter. God bless you, now let's get into it.
I caught myself using a friend's phrase last week.
Not a phrase I liked, either. A cynical one. Something he says when he wants to shut down a conversation. I heard it come out of my mouth and paused. I hadn't decided to pick it up. It had just moved in.
This week's theme: Company.
Today, the thing underneath every other thing. You are being shaped by the people you spend time with, whether you notice or not.
COMPANY
There's a verse in Proverbs that has been quietly true for three thousand years.
"Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm."
Read it slowly. The verb is walk. Not sit next to occasionally. Not admire from a distance. Walk. The rhythm of daily life. The people whose voices are in your ordinary hours.
The Hebrew here is more specific than it sounds. The word translated "companion" is ra'ah, which carries the sense of shepherding or feeding. Your companions are literally feeding you. Whatever they carry, they hand to you. Whatever they laugh at, they teach you to laugh at. Whatever they worry about, they train you to worry about.
You don't become like them because you agreed to. You become like them because you were near.
This is the thing I've had to accept slowly, and with a lot of resistance. My mood, my language, my defaults, my worries, my humour, my patience level. Almost all of it has fingerprints on it. Fingerprints from the people I've spent the most hours with over the last few years.
Some of those fingerprints have made me more like Jesus. Some of them have made me less like him.
That's not a judgement. It's just proximity doing what proximity does.
This week we're going to walk through this from a few different angles. Tomorrow we look at a king who chose the wrong counsellors and split a kingdom. Wednesday I'll be honest about a friendship I let sit too close for too long. Thursday we do a small audit. Friday we sit with the hard truth that some relationships have to be released. Saturday we go deeper into the Hebrew. Sunday we rest with Psalm 1.
For now, one question to carry into the day.
Who is currently feeding you?
YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY
Notice one thing today that you've picked up from someone else. A phrase. A worry. A way of reacting. A tone.
You are not making a judgement. You are just noticing. Awareness is the whole first step.
Father, help me see clearly this week. Show me who is currently shaping me, and how. Give me the courage to look honestly at the people whose voices are in my ordinary hours. Draw me closer to the ones drawing me closer to you. Amen.
OVER TO YOU
Whose voice do you hear most in your own head right now? Hit reply with one name, or one word. I read every one.
God bless you, my friend.
The LowKey Christian
P.S. Known: Discovering Who God Says You Are is out now. Newsletter readers still get 50% off for a limited time!: https://thelowkeychristian.com/ebook