3.216 Lead with Who You Are

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Have you ever experienced being judged before simply because of a label you had in your life? We've talked often about labels inside of Savory Salt and today perhaps a little bit of a label breaker if we take a look inside of our reading of Esther this week. We're not quite going to get out of chapter 2.

We started with chapter 2. It was difficult to land on one specific verse for this idea, so it's going to be the verses around this. But our specific verse for today is going to come from Esther chapter 2, verse 20.

It says, "Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as Mordecai had charged her. For Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him." Now, we have an interesting concept here, as Mordecai raised Esther, and so as a kind of a father figure and a mentor figure, she's going to follow his counsel. One of those pieces of counsel had the group that she's part of.

You know, this got me thinking about times in my life where I've simply just led who I am, who I'm trying to be, and let that lead first rather than leading with the label of what I am. Am I a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Yes, I am.

Many people would label that Mormon, but I don't lead with that. Instead, I try to just lead with who I'm trying to be. Trying to be a good person, trying to help people.

I am a pastor and I help people out trying to serve others, and I had very specific times in my career where who I am has been challenged and been brought up, and because I led with who I was, I didn't have to lean back on the label of what I was. I give you a specific example here, just quickly. There was a time in my career where I was accused of doing flat-out illegal things inside of my job.

I got called into the meeting room, right? And it was interesting, the approach of that, because the way that the conversation went was a little bit like this. "Allen, we know who you are, and we don't believe any of these accusations." That being said, it's in our legal interest. We are legally required to follow up on these accusations and search out and see if any of this is true.

But we want to let you know that because of who you are, we're doing this because it's our legal obligation, not because we see any truth in the accusations. I want to tread lightly here, but I want to also plant this idea. My friends, none of the people in that room sat down and said, "Allen, because you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're not going to believe these accusations." Or they didn't say, "Allen, because you went to church on Sunday," and they didn't take any of the labels of my life.

My friends, could we take an opportunity instead and just lead with who we are? Let who we are speak for itself. Let our actions, our beliefs, our behaviors, our character, our integrity, our judgments, our honesty, let those things speak for themselves, and then let others see after they see who we are.

Perhaps then they'll want to take a look at the things of what we are and the labels we. A little bit of great insight that I've come to realize in my life. This counsel from Mordecai is quite interesting.

Don't lead with what you are. Don't lead with the label. Instead, lead with who you are.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.