Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16, KJV

O.J. Brigance is a former NFL football standout and member of the Baltimore Ravens Superbowl XXXV (played on January 28, 2001) championship team. He is also a victim of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. At the time of this writing (January 12, 2013), O.J. cannot walk, cannot talk, is confined to a wheelchair, and communicates through a computer that speaks words he has typed with his eye movements.

Despite his condition, one would be hard pressed to ever find O.J. calling himself a victim. He still goes to work everyday in the Baltimore Ravens front office, rising three hours before starting time to get ready for the workday. He regularly checks in on the Ravens players to see how they are doing and to help them with both football-related and non-football-related matters. And, he attends every Baltimore Ravens game, inspiring his friends to do their best no matter what their circumstances.

At the end of a recent video aired by ESPN, O.J. said the following about his situation:

Regardless of what we go through in life there is always purpose wrapped within the pain…Every triumph and tragedy in my life has served as preparation to stand firm in this moment, to take what many perceive as an unbearable circumstance and impact the lives of others.

Former Ravens teammate and Superbowl XXXV champion quarterback Trent Dilfer, now an ESPN commentator, said this of his friend after the video aired:

We all have influence… Every single day our actions, our attitude, our effort, our energy is going to either positively or negatively influence somebody…There are thermometer leaders, those that react to the environment around them, and then there are thermostat leaders, guys that set the temperature. It doesn’t matter their circumstances, they come every single day with an energy to them, an influence to them that just changes the room. That was O.J.

Each and every day we have a choice to be a thermometer or a thermostat. The easier role to play is that of the thermometer; it doesn’t take much discipline to simply react to the people and to the circumstances around you. But for the Christian, being a thermometer is not the role our Lord would have us to play. Rather, He expects us to play the role of the thermostat.

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tell us, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” When surrounded by and attacked by the snarling, growling aggressiveness of the world, human nature entices us to respond with the same snarling, growling, and aggressiveness. If we are louder and stronger than the wolves, we think, we can overcome them. Yet God does not instruct us to fight fire with fire; He instructs us to fight fire with water. He expects us to change the tone, to set the temperature, and to meet the world’s attitude of conflict with Heaven’s attitude of peace.

Setting the temperature rather than responding to it requires an inner strength that most Christians would argue they do not have. But every born-again child of God does possess this strength, but not of themselves. They possess it through the Holy Spirit that dwells within them. It is a fundamental Bible truth that every true child of God was indwelt with the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (1 Corinthians 3:16, KJV: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?). This means that God lives within us, and He is ready and willing to supernaturally enable each and every one of us to live life exactly the way He wants us to live it. All we need do is yield our will to His, and then we’ll witness the Holy Spirit, through us, set the temperature of our present environment.

Endeavor today to influence those around you for Christ – not by your own power, but by letting the power of the God that dwells within you flow through you.

(To view ESPN’s January 2013 segment on O.J. Brigance, click the following link or copy/paste it into your browser’s address bar: http://youtu.be/j1x8OKMeDIM)