Derek Clark has had a rough life to say the least. With his mother being raped, having an abusive father, getting abandoned at a psychiatric hospital when he was five years old, and being thrown into foster care, he had a reason to have no faith in God. However, after a traumatic experience seven years ago when his three-year-old daughter’s best friend drowned and survived twenty-eight hours later at his own house, he finally realized that even through the worst times, God is present and has a plan for us. Clark says that everyone feels broken, but there is a God even when you think He is not there.

I learned that in abandonment, there is still a plan for everyone. There will be a human side of our faith that always questions whether God is truly present through the hardest times, but in order to grow through the pain, we need a stable spiritual relationship that has the room to develop within our life. No matter your personal values, whether you believe there is a god or not, He is there, and He knows what we are able to handle and what will break us down to build us back up. Clark reminds us that we all have a purpose as long as there is blood pumping through our heart and air circulating through our lungs. The relationship between personal values, integrity and ethical leadership is shown through Clark’s testimony of leaning on something more than yourself to follow your plans and reach for higher values from the ethics of a spiritual relationship.

With Derek Clark’s values explained, I am inclined to believe that he follows authentic leadership. My understanding is that once you find yourself in God and your relationship with him, your leadership style will become authentic and resonate to all. Faith is a powerful idea that can have so much influence on the way one lives their life. When Clark says to turn your test into testimony, fear into faith, and try into triumph, it makes me believe that there is more to life than what is seen with the human eye. This lecture has affected me in an immense way, I now see more clearly than I ever have before about what is destined for me and how I can find my vocation. I am going to learn to praise God even through the hardest times of my life.