I've never had a good memory for celebrities or trivia, but I always marvelled at the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The rules are simple: take any actor or celebrity and link him or her to actor Kevin Bacon in six connections or less. It's fascinating—someone can always find the common bonds!

The game is no more than a simplified concept of a larger principle called The Small World Problem (also dubbed Six Degrees of Separation), which is the idea that everyone on earth can be connected in six steps.

While this idea isn't foolproof, we still joke about all being linked to Kevin Bacon. And I wonder if we secretly believe it too. I mean, we already know happiness is contagious through social media all the way to our friends' friends' friends and everyone can all think of someone who has impacted his or her life for better or for worse. So maybe we are really all interconnected. Maybe our lives do reach farther than we can imagine.

It's all about influence. We're obsessed with it! The idea that our actions or emotions could impact people we've never met is intriguing, intimidating, and maybe even a little unbelievable.

But the Bible talks about degrees of influence as well—the Old Testament is especially filled with warnings that a person's actions will not only affect his life, but his children's lives, and their children's lives as well (check out Proverbs 13:22, Ezekiel 37:25, and Jeremiah 2:9 for starters).

So think about life like this: Your life will influence (like it or not) people up to three steps away from you—meaning your friends (one connection), your friends' friends (two connections), and your friends' friends' friends (three connections). As well, your life will influence your children (one connection), your grandchildren (two connections), and your great-grandchildren (three connections).

That's six degrees of influence and that's all before you've even signed up for social media or, well, tried very hard!

The next time you find yourself wondering if your life is making any sort of impact on the world remember lives are like a pebble dropped on a still pond—although the splash only lasts a second, the ripples endure.

Matthew 6 says God sees everything done in secret, and rewards us accordingly. Be encouraged that even if you can't see the impact your life has on others believe there will be a lasting influence, and live accordingly.