100 Most Influential People

I am not sure if your high school did this, but in my senior year we did the “Best of the Class of 2000" for our yearbook. I know, now you know how old I am. Anyways, for the yearbook I was nominated both “Best Smile” and “Class Troublemaker.” Not quite what you would call the most influential. This morning, I was browsing Time Magazine's article on the "100 Most Influential People," and there was a name that stuck out to me.

In these lists you always have a certain portion going to entertainers, athletes, and world leaders. I mean, you could probably just guess ten people right now and I guarantee you will find them on that list. Time Magazine is no joke though. It’s not like Rochester’s The Insider or something. This magazine has some street cred. It is the world’s largest weekly news magazine according to Wikipedia (yes, I look at Wikipedia). It has been around for nearly 100 years at this point. Every year they come out with this list of the “100 Most Influential People.” Like I said before, it is somewhat predictable, but you still see people standing in the checkout line quickly reviewing the "who’s who" of that year before paying for their grocery bill.

For some reason, when I was looking over who made the list this year, I had this weird feeling that I would know someone. Not just from watching the boob tube or YouTube, but legitimately know them. I was anticipating my next door neighbor, my wife, or maybe my former boss to have made the list. Sure enough they were not. Although June will be there someday, mark my words.

Someone who did make the list was Rob Bell. Love him or hate him, my faith was acknowledge in a culture that thinks Christianity is taboo. You may be wondering why I am writing about this random Christian “superstar” or giving a huge shout out to Time Magazine. Well, Rob Bell’s book “Sex God,” actually talks about Johnny Cash and June Carter and the relationship they had. If you have never read it, is a good one for exploring sexuality and God. This book also happens to be the source of inspiration for me calling my beautiful wife June, and for her calling me Johnny.

Rob Bell definitely makes our list of most influential people in our marriage, and in some small way I feel like I know him. Until next year!