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Leaders come in many forms. “A leader is one who influences others by their actions and thoughts, whether they know it or not.” I recently gave a speech about leadership at my local church’s Confirmation retreat. The purpose of my talk was to relate my personal experiences to different types of leaders and ultimately express the importance of spreading God’s leadership. My entire life, I’ve struggled with the concept of religion. It was not until this year that I came to the conclusion that there is a difference between religion and faith. I said in my speech, “I have struggled with my faith my entire life. I was able to find religion eventually, but the path has been nothing short of rocky.” I never felt the “knock on the heart door” or “pull at the heartstrings” that I thought I was supposed to. I always thought that my relationship with God had to be somewhat linear. Linear meaning that I had to see or feel God directly. However, my perspective completely changed during my Confirmation retreat. Almost 6 years ago, I remember a speech or talk where we discussed how people can “see God” in different ways. This could include seeing God through art, music, or even people. From here, my perception of God was not linear, but rather abstract. As it turns out, I see God through people. More specifically, I see God through the leadership of people. I said in my speech, “People show kindness, courage, resilience, and love.” I talked about the different types of leaders: the everyday leader, the community leader, and the Christian leader. The one that really stuck with me though, was the everyday leader.
My favorite word is resilience. I think it encapsulates only the best possible adjectives. Humans are resilient, and I like to believe that when the human race was created, the purpose was to ensure that the universe would always have hope. Resilience means hope. Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue to counts.” Leadership is courageous. To introduce the everyday leader, this story immediately came to mind:
A man moved back to his hometown after losing his job. He had nowhere to go but figured he could find a job there. He was from a rather small town and a lot of people he knew from high school were still there. The man had no home and little money, he was living out of his car until he could find a job. He immediately began searching for places to interview but his clothing was old and his appearance was ragged. With little options, he decided to ask one of his best friends from high school for a desk clerk position at his law firm. The man went in to his friend’s office, explained his situation, and asked him for a job. The friend turned him away and gave the reason that his appearance was not fit to uphold the law firm’s reputation. Losing hope, the man went to a local church and asked about the job opening he saw in the paper. Keep in mind that this church was one of the biggest ones in town and many of the town’s more affluent characters went to church there. The man applied for an office position, as he had a degree and was very much qualified. He went to the office to express his interest in the job and explained his situation but was again turned away because of his appearance. The man was running out of money. A couple days after his experience at the church, he was buying some food at the grocery store to last him the weekend. He got to the register and the cashier told him that he did not have enough money to pay for his food. To his surprise, the person behind him stepped up and offered to pay for his groceries. In the moment, he didn’t notice her but when they left the store she revealed herself as one of his high school classmates. He did not recognize her, but she assured him that they went to school together. She asked him how he was and, seeing that she payed for his groceries, he told her about his situation. When she heard this, she was moved with compassion. She offered him a cashier position at her local boutique and pointed him in the direction of one of the local churches that helps find temporary places for people to stay.
The woman showed him mercy. This is an interpretation of the story of the Good Samaritan. As it goes, the one who shows mercy is the neighbor. To “love thy neighbor” is an act that people perform and is a case where it is clear to see God through people. Everyday leadership can take many forms. Some of the best leaders are the ones who go unnoticed. Your neighbor can go unnoticed. Donating to an outreach center or anonymously paying for someone’s order in the drive-thru line are marks of leadership. This is why humans are resilient. People will perform incredible and resilient acts to help a neighbor that they may know nothing about. An everyday leader could be a neighbor, a friend, or a stranger.
My personal example of an everyday leader also takes the form of a community leader. I see God through community leaders that give hope to their population. There is a certain resilience in genuinely giving people something to strive for and something to fight for. I see God in community leaders that persist. They not only give hope to their people but have the courage to continue helping their population even when adversity hits for themselves. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lost infinite hope.” We are a part of many different communities that require hope to help their populations continue to thrive. When I wrote my speech, I immediately thought about my hometown community. I had been fairly disconnected from Somerset, Kentucky since I realized I would move away for college. By the second semester of my sophomore year at UofL, after I moved away, I was ready to completely leave Kentucky and never look back. However, this was the semester that my life took an unanticipated turn. I participated in the Frankfort internship not really knowing what to expect. Further, I was the only intern for my local Pulaski county representative, Tommy Turner. I was so far removed from Pulaski that I thought it would be an experience that was solely going to be focused on the state legislature. I was completely wrong.
At the beginning of the internship, Turner told me that he wanted me to get the most out of my experience at the Capital. I went to Session, attended committee meetings, I would occasionally take groups from our county on Capital tours, I met a lot of different people, and learned various legislative processes. Week after week, I went back to the Capital. Each visit was different, but almost every day Turner and I would sit in his office and eat lunch together. We would eat sandwiches and talk about stuff that was happening in Pulaski county. In addition, every day he would ask me about my time at the Capital and if I enjoyed it there. He told me stories about growing up in Pulaski county and, as it turns out, we had some similar experiences. One day we were eating our sandwiches and started talking about Shopville, which is his district and where I grew up. I started talking about the park. He said, “you know where that came from, right? I helped write the legislation to create that park.” That almost brought me to tears. I started thinking of all the things I did there. I learned how to ride a bike at Shopville park, I attended numerous birthdays there, and I passed it every day on my commute to elementary school. After that, I started paying attention to how Turner conducts himself as a leader and, as it turns out, I couldn’t have found a better role model. He truly cares about his constituents. He talks to his people and listens to their stories. I see God through Tommy Turner. Past politics, he truly cares about his community. Through all of his stories and his leadership, he brought me back home. I was so far removed from the thought of moving back to Kentucky, but after my time as his intern, I realized that Pulaski County is and will always be my home. I did not know what I missed until I moved away. He influenced me to want to come back someday and be a leader in Kentucky. He gave me hope.
Tommy Turner announced his retirement over the Christmas break of my junior year. It hit me incredibly hard because I felt that a little bit of my hope for Pulaski was lost. After all, we are losing one of our best leaders that gave me the hope I was looking for, so how could I not be devastated? While I was writing my speech, however, I realized that Turner’s leadership is not lost. While he is an incredible community leader, his influence as an everyday leader reaches so much farther and has stronger roots than I could possibly imagine. Turner has influenced many people to become leaders. He influenced me to be a different kind of leader than I had originally imagined. I thought, to be a successful leader, I had to lead on a grand scale. I thought that I had to perform large acts to create massive change. I could not have been further from the truth. The everyday leader, through everyday acts, creates massive change. The leadership of a neighbor, friend, stranger, or representative can help the lives of so many without even knowing it. Tommy Turner constantly helps people and helped me more than I knew possible. Whether it be in a God or the leadership of everyday people, I have a stronger grasp of my faith. Faith, in whatever someone may choose, is important. People need faith and people need hope to keep the human race resilient.
As I also see God through music, I have attached a song that reminds me of everyday leaders: