Authenticity
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
As I continue building on the theme of leading from the inside out, through Integrity, Humility, Commitment, and Hospitality, this week I want to share what I believe is one of the most foundational qualities of all. Authenticity. It is one of the key characteristics of a leader who desires to live the Integrated life.
In my formative years, I was greatly influenced by culture, sports, military training, and business. Those environments taught me to be tough, strong, and guarded. Vulnerability was perceived as weakness. I learned to project strength and keep many of my challenges and weaknesses hidden. That approach served me in some ways, but it also kept me fragmented, performing, and mostly disconnected from God and others. Over the past 25 years of walking with Jesus, that has changed profoundly. I have discovered that authenticity is not weakness; it is one of the most powerful forces available to a leader and the foundation of genuine Kingdom impact. The idea is that we should fully embrace the fullness of who we are, the strengths and weaknesses, and live Authentically by simply working to become the best version of ourselves in Christ.
Three Principles of Authentic Kingdom Leadership:
Authenticity Begins with Identity in Christ: The foundation of a truly authentic life is not self-awareness or emotional intelligence, as valuable as those things are. It is knowing who you are in Christ. Before surrendering my life to Jesus, I was constantly trying to figure out who I was and what would make me feel complete. I lacked authenticity because I lacked identity. I was striving to become somebody rather than working at becoming the best version of myself. Everything changed when I had the revelation that God made me uniquely in His image, that I was not called to be like anyone else but simply to be who God created me to be in Christ. When our identity is rooted in who God says we are rather than what the world says we should be, we stop performing and start becoming. We lead from a place of security and settledness that changes the way we show up and the way we lead. This is the core of our Abide and Lead framework. The integrated leader is not someone who has figured everything out. It is someone who knows who they are in Christ and leads from that centered and secure place into every area of their life: their business, their marriage, their family, and their community. All of it flows from one source. All of it is integrated through one identity. "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful; I know that full well" (Psalm 139:14).
Authenticity Requires Owning Our Humanness: Authentic living requires us to acknowledge and own our weaknesses and blind spots rather than hiding them behind a polished image. As we grow in our walk with Christ, He frees us from the sins of our past while simultaneously revealing new areas that need His transforming work. The bar keeps rising. And it only rises in leaders who are willing to be honest with God, with themselves, and with the trusted people around them. I have had to be honest with myself and those closest to me about the ways my intensity and drivenness have at times hurt the people I love most. That kind of honesty is not comfortable. But it is the pathway to genuine transformation. And it is what makes a leader truly trustworthy: not the absence of flaws but the willingness to acknowledge them and continue to pray and work to be transformed through Christ. Paul did not just tolerate his weakness; he boasted in it. Because he had discovered that the power of Christ shows up most powerfully in the places where we stop pretending we have it all together and simply make room for God to be strong. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3).
Authenticity Flourishes in Genuine Community: We cannot fully know ourselves in isolation. God designed us to be known by others, to live in genuine community where trusted friends can see what we cannot see in ourselves and speak truth into our lives with love and courage. This is one of the primary reasons I am so passionate about what we are building at Abide and Lead. When leaders commit to being genuinely known by going deeper and being vulnerable by being personally real, something powerful happens. Iron sharpens iron, blind spots are illuminated, burdens are shared, the darkness comes into the light. This kind of growth and freedom happens when we are in authentic community with others. This is also why the integrated leader does not compartmentalize. The same authentic person who shows up in the boardroom shows up at the dinner table and at the hunting lodge. One person, fully known, fully surrendered to Christ, living the same integrated life in every room. We are truly a better version of ourselves when we are in true, authentic relationship with others. "Two are better than one. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
God calls us to authenticity because He Himself is completely authentic with us. He knows us fully, our strengths, our failures, and our deepest fears, and loves us completely anyway. As 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us, the Lord does not look at outward appearance. He looks at the heart. May our hearts be fully His: known, surrendered, and genuinely whole in Christ.
Challenge Question: Where in your life or leadership is God inviting you to drop the mask and live more authentically with Him, with your family, or with trusted friends? What would it look like to lead from genuine identity in Christ rather than performance and image management this week?
Prayer: Father, thank You for loving us fully and authentically through Christ, for knowing us completely and choosing us anyway. Teach us to fully embrace who we are in You, to acknowledge our weaknesses without shame, and to pursue genuine community where we can be truly known and sharpened. May our authenticity reflect Your grace and make us the kind of integrated leaders whose inside matches their outside in every room we enter. In Jesus name, Amen.
The world has enough performers. What it desperately needs are authentic leaders who know who they are in Christ and have the courage to lead from that place in every area of their lives. Be that leader this week and be the best version of you that you can be!!!!
Have a great week!