Who are the biggest influences in your life?
I used to think influence accumulated slowly, shaped by family, culture, and experience. That who I became would emerge gradually, almost imperceptibly.
But some influences do not accumulate. They reorient.
It is Christmas Eve, when many around the world are marking the story of Jesus’ birth. His life, death, and resurrection proved transformational for me. I grew up in a secular home, so becoming a Christian was not an extension of what I already believed, but a decisive shift.
I find Jesus compelling: his life extraordinary, his teaching revolutionary, his death deeply sacrificial, and his resurrection wholly unforeseen.
Following him has reshaped my life, not as a single moment but as a daily choice — learning to live his way rather than simply absorbing the values that quietly govern ordinary life.
Looking back, the deepest influence has been neither loud nor numerous, but singular and persistent — less a voice competing for attention, more a horizon that steadily redefined the direction of travel.
The Afterword 
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