Leadership is not simply about finding your voice — it is about learning what deserves to be said at all. In a world that encourages constant expression, wisdom often appears as restraint. Not every thought needs a microphone, and not every silence is avoidance. Mature influence chooses impact over expression, understanding that words carry weight long after they are spoken.
Some nights feel meaningful and guided. Others involve unexpected chaos, a questionable playlist, and the sudden realization that life does not consult your plans. This is a story about one of those nights – and how, somewhere in the absurdity, you discover you’re going to be okay.
For years I believed my passion was a liability in leadership, that caring too deeply would cloud decisions. What I’ve learned instead is that people-centered leadership isn’t weakness. It’s maturity. It’s strength. And it may be the very thing that gives leadership its meaning.
Leadership is shaped by daily choices – choosing growth over negativity, hope over cynicism, and empowerment over fear. Every choice quietly determines where we lead others.
Leadership begins when we stop managing people and start seeing them – creating spaces where growth, belonging, and transformation become possible for individuals and entire communities.
Collaboration is a posture toward the shared good, where trust grows and responsibility is shared.
Lent isn’t about trying harder or feeling worse. It’s a pause we didn’t schedule—an interruption that invites us to wake up, slow down, and tell the truth about where we are. An Honest Return: 40 Days of Waking Up is a gentle, daily journey for the curious, the weary, and the quietly hopeful.
After mangoes, lemons, and oranges came a 1,000-pound bin of red potatoes – on a rainy, windy day. Still waiting on cattle, I’m learning that provision doesn’t always arrive contained and manageable. Sometimes manna comes in bulk, and the miracle is not ownership, but community showing up to share.
We’ve learned a new kind of math – one that justifies harm by comparison and excuses ourselves by pointing elsewhere. This reflection names hard truths about racism, privilege, and accountability, not to shut down conversation, but to invite something deeper: honesty, listening, and the courage to do better together.
This series is not a departure from a Christ-centered faith – it is a deeper expression of it. Rooted in agápē love and the conviction that every person bears the image of God, these reflections are an invitation, not an argument. Across faiths and worldviews, love is named as central, yet in our time it has become one of the most divisive words we use. This series opens a space to pause, reflect, and ask an honest question: if love truly sits at the center of what we believe, what should it look like in how we live, speak, and relate to one another?
