do the same work differently than a person who is fine with remaining self-seeking, self-promoting, or impatient? Two people can do the very same thing with very different outcomes. The same task gets done, but the resulting fruit can be radi- cally different. I recently had lunch with the pas- tor of a church located in downtown Los Angeles. We talked about how too many people with a leadership title see their roles as something they must manage on their own for God, rather than being a means by which, with God, they might be a blessing to the people around them. The result is often anxiety, self-importance, fear, or self-promotion, the kind of fruit that bears no aroma of God’s glorious and inviting presence. Spiritual leadership is not so much about managing something for God as much as it is expressing the life of God through the unique situation in which we find ourselves. What if our leadership influence was more about overflow than about managing what we perceive to be the limited, if not meager, resources at our disposal? What if God’s Kingdom really has come and I’m actually invited to be a key player in people’s vision and knowledge of their Creator? The Purposes of God S o this spiritual—this unhur- ried—leadership is a process of learning to work in har- mony with the purposes of God. It is also the awareness that so much of what God does begins in people’s hearts. How can we as unhurried leaders be involved in this aspect of God’s work? One way is to join Jesus and the Spirit in prayer. Jesus is never too busy to talk to the Father about our good. Are we too busy to seek the Father for the good of our spouses, our children, our friends, our neigh- bors, or our coworkers? If so, I’d say we’re too busy. Hurried leadership makes me think of a childhood toy called a Chi- nese finger trap. This long, narrow cylinder is often woven from bamboo strips. A child puts a finger from one hand into one end and a finger from the other hand in the other end, and pulls. The trap tightens on each of the child’s fingers. The child’s instinct to get out of the trap is to pull harder; but the harder he pulls, the tighter the trap becomes. Instead, the child needs to push his fingers toward each other. Doing so will loosen the trap enough to extricate his little digits. When we get into hurried, anxious places in our lives, how do we respond? Do we, like a child with a finger trap, try harder and go faster only to find that life gets even more hurried, worried, and cramped? What if we learned to do exactly the oppo- site of what we would do impulsively? We might experience what Isaiah described: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). I’ve found those words from Isaiah especially helpful whenever I think about having a more unhurried approach to my leadership relation- ships and roles. To be specific, I see salvation and strength as leadership categories. Throughout Scripture, God’s people seek human leaders like judges or kings who will be strong on their behalf and get them out of the messes in which they find them- selves. It’s not much different today. But, through Isaiah, God paints a very different picture of what true  WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG MAY/JUNE 2019 47 When we get into hurried, anxious places in our lives, how do we respond? Do we, like a child with a finger trap, try harder and go faster only to find that life gets even more hurried, worried, and cramped? What if we learned to do exactly the opposite of what we would do impulsively?