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Speaker 1: Life audio. Many Christian leaders carry a question they rarely

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Speaker 1: say out loud. It goes something like this, If I'm

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Speaker 1: working so hard for God, why does it sometimes feel

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Speaker 1: like I'm drifting farther from him? Leadership can slowly become

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Speaker 1: more about what we accomplish than about the life we

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Speaker 1: are living with God, and over time Jesus invites us

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Speaker 1: into something deeper, a kind of inner conversion that reshapes

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Speaker 1: the way we lead. Hello friends, I'm Alan Faddling and

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Speaker 1: you're listening to the Unhurried Living Podcast, where we inspire

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Speaker 1: you to rest deeper, live fuller, and lead better. Today

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Speaker 1: I'll be talking about the inner conversion of a leader,

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Speaker 1: the gradual shift from trying to accomplish great things for

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Speaker 1: God to learning how to work with God in the

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Speaker 1: life and leadership he has given us. After a word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, I'll move into our theme for today

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Speaker 1: before we begin. If you find this podcast helpful, i'd

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Speaker 1: encourage you to subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you happen to listen to us. It's a simple

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Speaker 1: way to help these conversations reach others who are longing

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Speaker 1: to rest deeper, live fuller, and lead better. Now, over

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Speaker 1: the years, I've noticed that one of the most important

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Speaker 1: transformations in leadership is not something that happens in our

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Speaker 1: strategies or our structures, but something that happens within us.

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Speaker 1: I've come to think of it as the inner conversion

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Speaker 1: of a leader. Now, conversion is not just the doorway

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Speaker 1: into salvation, it is also the ongoing way that Salvation

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Speaker 1: reshapes every arena of our lives, including our leadership. Part

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Speaker 1: of a leader's conversion shows up in what we believe

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Speaker 1: our primary productivity is in the Kingdom of God. I

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Speaker 1: was speaking to a group of church leaders once when

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Speaker 1: I found myself asking an unexpected question. It hadn't been

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Speaker 1: in my notes. I said, now, this may be a

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Speaker 1: silly way to ask it, but what is our product?

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Speaker 1: What do we actually produce? What are we selling in

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Speaker 1: air quotes? In other words, what is the primary good

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Speaker 1: our leadership is meant to produce. One of my mentors

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Speaker 1: often liked to ask one or two questions whenever we

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Speaker 1: gathered for leadership meetings. One was what is the Christian life?

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Speaker 1: The other was what is the church? Now? At first,

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Speaker 1: those questions felt elementary, as if we were being asked

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Speaker 1: something we should have settled a long time ago. But

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Speaker 1: the longer I live, the more I believe these are

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Speaker 1: essential questions. What, in fact is our vision of the

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Speaker 1: Christian life? How do we live this life well? And

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Speaker 1: how do we live it together as God's people in

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Speaker 1: the church. What I've come to realize is that I

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Speaker 1: want to live the Gospel so well that my life

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Speaker 1: recommends my message. I want my life to be richly gospeled.

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Speaker 1: I want my life to feel more like good news

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Speaker 1: than bad news to the people who cross my path.

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Speaker 1: As I spoke to that room full of church leaders,

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Speaker 1: I observed that they were likely responsible for many things

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Speaker 1: programs and structures and positions and departments and more. But

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Speaker 1: what makes any of those things meaningful is the way

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Speaker 1: that they serve actual people, the fruit that Jesus invites

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Speaker 1: us to bear, the fruit that lasts always involves people.

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Speaker 1: So when I think about ministry and serving with excellence,

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Speaker 1: I certainly work to be well prepared when I speak

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Speaker 1: or lead an event, or sit with someone in counsel

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Speaker 1: or coaching. But at the center of all that preparation

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Speaker 1: is something deeper. It's the preparation of myself who I

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Speaker 1: am when I preach or teach or lead makes an

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Speaker 1: immense difference. I mean, for example, do I enter a

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Speaker 1: ministry moment anxious or at peace? Do I arrive frustrated

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Speaker 1: or grateful? Do people experience me as driven or as present?

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Speaker 1: In what ways? Is the living presence of Jesus overflowing

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Speaker 1: through my life? In what I say and do? Is

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Speaker 1: that what people encounter in the ministries I lead? I

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Speaker 1: ask these questions not to increase guilt, but to deepen

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Speaker 1: our awareness of God with us, no matter what it

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Speaker 1: is we're doing. I believe Jesus invites us to be

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Speaker 1: coached by Him in the ministries that He has entrusted

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Speaker 1: to us. He is the great shepherd. He knows what

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Speaker 1: he's doing, He knows what matters and what doesn't. What

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Speaker 1: I want to do is learn how to walk with

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Speaker 1: him and work more closely with him. That has been

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Speaker 1: my quest for most of my adult life as a

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Speaker 1: Christian leader. As we begin to pay attention to our

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Speaker 1: inner life in leadership, we may start to notice something uncomfortable.

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Speaker 1: The work we once assumed was purely for the sake

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Speaker 1: of others often turns out to have been quietly serving

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Speaker 1: us as well. Our ministries, our word and become places

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Speaker 1: where we seek recognition, where we seek to prove our worth,

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Speaker 1: or where we feel needed by others. The Jesuit writer

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Speaker 1: Thomas Green once named these hidden dynamics with unusual honesty.

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Speaker 1: His words help us see how prayer slowly exposes the

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Speaker 1: subtle ways our leadership can revolve around ourselves rather than

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Speaker 1: around the people we are meant to serve. Now listen

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Speaker 1: to these words about how a change in our life

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Speaker 1: of prayer can lead to a change in our leadership.

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Speaker 1: They come from Thomas Green's book When the Well Runs Dry,

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Speaker 1: He says, and such a tremendous change in our prayer

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Speaker 1: can not but affect a comparable change in our lives.

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Speaker 1: Our apostolate, our ministry, our service of others also becomes

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Speaker 1: more other centered unless self centered. We begin to realize

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Speaker 1: how all of our generous and apostolic actions have been

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Speaker 1: tainted by seeking or recognition, by a need to prove

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Speaker 1: our own worth and perhaps our superiority to others, and

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Speaker 1: by a desire to find our fulfillment in others' dependence

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Speaker 1: on us. Now, Green here speaks to the integration of

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Speaker 1: our inner life of prayer and our outer life of

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Speaker 1: work or leadership. One evidence of this integration is the

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Speaker 1: gradual diminishing of the subtle ways that we engage in

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Speaker 1: our work to serve our own needs rather than to

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Speaker 1: serve the needs of others. I've seen these self serving

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Speaker 1: motives that Green names in myself as well as in others,

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Speaker 1: you know, seeking recognition, proving our worth through what we accomplish, quietly,

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Speaker 1: feeling more serious or committed in our spirituality than others,

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Speaker 1: or even finding satisfaction in the dependence people have on us.

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Speaker 1: It brings to mind the apostle Paul's words in First

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Speaker 1: Corinthians three when he says, I planted the seed, Apollos

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Speaker 1: watered it, but God has been making it grow. So

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Speaker 1: neither the one who plants nor the one who waters

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Speaker 1: is anything but only God who makes things grow. It

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Speaker 1: really is true that we each make our contribution through

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Speaker 1: what we initiate in planting or cultivate through watering. But

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Speaker 1: in the end, it is God who gives growth and

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Speaker 1: makes our work fruitful. He created the seeds we plant

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Speaker 1: and water. We did not create them. We simply plant

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Speaker 1: in water what He has already given us. I wonder,

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Speaker 1: if we see our work this way, what are we

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Speaker 1: planting and watering that God then causes to grow. Are

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Speaker 1: we seeing those connections between our initiatives and God's earlier initiative.

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Speaker 1: When we begin to see our work this way as

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Speaker 1: planting and watering that ultimately belongs to God, it invites

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Speaker 1: another important question, not only why we are doing what

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Speaker 1: we do, but also whether what we are doing is

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Speaker 1: what God is actually asking of us. Leaders can be

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Speaker 1: deeply sincere, full of devotion, and eager to do something

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Speaker 1: meaningful for God, and yet even good intentions can move

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Speaker 1: us ahead of God rather than with him. There's a

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Speaker 1: fascinating moment in the life of King David that speaks

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Speaker 1: directly to this possibility. After the break, I'll continue reflecting

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Speaker 1: on the inner conversion of a leader. Now, before I

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Speaker 1: touch that David story, let me share another. Recently, I

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Speaker 1: participated in a leadership conference where one of the speakers

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Speaker 1: used that familiar illustration about the difference between contribution and commitment.

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Speaker 1: In the story, the chicken contributes to breakfast by laying

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Speaker 1: an egg. The pig commits by providing the bacon. The point,

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Speaker 1: of course, is that leaders should be more like the

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Speaker 1: pig than the chicken, fully committed to the cause. Now

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Speaker 1: I understand the spirit of that illustration. Christian leadership does

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Speaker 1: call for real devotion and sacrifice. The work entrusted to

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Speaker 1: us matters, and half hearted engagement rarely bears much fruit.

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Speaker 1: But as I listened to this story being told, there

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Speaker 1: was another thought that bubbled up. When the pig makes

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Speaker 1: his contribution to breakfast, he's done, he's out. There are

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Speaker 1: no more breakfasts for him to contribute to. In that sense,

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Speaker 1: the pig becomes a rather vivid illustration of the kind

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Speaker 1: of leadership that burns out or disqualifies itself. That leader

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Speaker 1: is also out. And it made me wonder whether sometimes

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Speaker 1: we encourage a kind of intensity in Christian leadership that

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Speaker 1: focuses more on how much we give than on whether

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Speaker 1: what we are giving ourselves to is actually what God

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Speaker 1: is asking of us. And so that reflection is what

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Speaker 1: brought that moment in the life King David to mind.

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Speaker 1: In Tewod Samuel seven, we read that David had finally

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Speaker 1: come to a season of rest. His enemies had been subdued,

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Speaker 1: and he was settled in his palace. One day he

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Speaker 1: looked around and said to Nathan the prophet, here I

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Speaker 1: am living in a house of Cedar, while the ark

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Speaker 1: of God God remains in a tent. It sounded like

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Speaker 1: a noble impulse. David wanted to build God a temple,

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Speaker 1: a house worthy of the Lord. Well, Nathan's response seemed

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Speaker 1: perfectly reasonable. He told the king, whatever you have in mind,

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Speaker 1: go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.

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Speaker 1: In other words, David, you've been successful. God has clearly

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Speaker 1: been with you. Follow the good impulse that's on your heart.

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Speaker 1: But that night the word of the Lord came to

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Speaker 1: Nathan with a surprising correction, Go and tell my servant, David,

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Speaker 1: are you the one to build me a house to

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Speaker 1: dwell in? In other words, David's idea was sincere, It

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Speaker 1: was generous, It sounded like a wonderful act of devotion.

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Speaker 1: It just wasn't what God was asking him to do.

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Speaker 1: David assumed that because something seemed good and because intentions

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Speaker 1: were honorable, must also be God's will. Nathan initially made

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Speaker 1: the same assumption, but God gently interrupted that conclusion. And

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Speaker 1: that moment raises a searching question for those of us

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Speaker 1: who lead in Jesus' name. Not only how devoted are

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Speaker 1: we to the work we are doing, but also is

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Speaker 1: the work we are doing actually what God is inviting

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Speaker 1: us to do. Sometimes Christian leadership encourages an almost frantic

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Speaker 1: determination to do great things for God, But the deeper

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Speaker 1: question is whether we are actually listening closely enough to

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Speaker 1: discern what is on God's heart and mind. Now that

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Speaker 1: reflection isn't meant as a criticism of the speaker I

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Speaker 1: heard that day share the story of the Chicken and

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Speaker 1: the Pig. I mean I admire leaders who bring passion

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Speaker 1: and focus to the work of God's kingdom. I know

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Speaker 1: I often need more of that kind of energy myself.

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Speaker 1: But devotion alone is not the whole story, even sincere

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Speaker 1: devotion and drift into doing something for God that God

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Speaker 1: never asked for. And one of the quiet conversions in

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Speaker 1: a leader's life is learning to ask a different question

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Speaker 1: instead of what great thing can I do for God?

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Speaker 1: Perhaps instead we ask Lord, what would you like me

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Speaker 1: to do? Or perhaps even more humbly, is there something

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Speaker 1: I'm eager to do for you that you are not

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Speaker 1: asking of me. Moments like that invite a deeper shift

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Speaker 1: in how we think about leadership in the Kingdom of God.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps our role is not primarily to accomplish impressive things

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Speaker 1: for God, but to learn how to participate more attentively

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Speaker 1: in what God is already doing. That kind of leadership

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Speaker 1: begins not with intensity, but with receptivity, with prayer that

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Speaker 1: teaches us how to listen before we act. The theologian

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Speaker 1: Hans Urs von Baltazar describes this shift beautifully in his

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Speaker 1: Reflections on Prayer in his book simply titled Prayer. He

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Speaker 1: says this, we do not build the Kingdom of God

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Speaker 1: on earth by our own efforts. However, assisted by grace,

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Speaker 1: the most we can do through genuine prayer is to

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Speaker 1: make as much room as possible in ourselves and in

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Speaker 1: the world or the Kingdom of God, so that its

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Speaker 1: energies can go to work. In other words, none of

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Speaker 1: us builds the Kingdom of God through our own efforts,

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Speaker 1: not even with a little divine assistance added in. At

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Speaker 1: our best, we learn something much humbler and much more freeing.

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Speaker 1: We learn to become people through whom God can do

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Speaker 1: what God wishes to do. We make room for the

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Speaker 1: Kingdom of God to reign in us, so that it

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Speaker 1: might begin to reign through us. Our leadership grows out

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Speaker 1: of a living and interactive relationship with God and we

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Speaker 1: share what God gives us. In contemplation, we speak what

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Speaker 1: we hear. In prayer, we act in response to what

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Speaker 1: the reality of God with us is already doing around us.

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Speaker 1: In that sense, the work of leadership is not simply

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Speaker 1: about building something impressive for God. It is about learning

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Speaker 1: how to join God in the remarkable work he is

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Speaker 1: already doing. And perhaps that is one of the deepest

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Speaker 1: conversions in a leader's life. We begin by asking what

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Speaker 1: can I accomplish for God? But over time we learn

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Speaker 1: to ask that quieter and wiser question, Lord, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing? And how may I join you? Now? I

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Speaker 1: know I'm saying the same thing in many different ways.

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Speaker 1: I think of Peter when he said in one of

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Speaker 1: his letters, It's no trouble for me to remind you

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Speaker 1: of these things. What I'm sharing with you has been

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Speaker 1: a lifelong lesson for me in leadership. And that kind

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Speaker 1: of leadership grows out of prayer, it grows out of listening,

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Speaker 1: It grows out of a life that is slowly being

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Speaker 1: shaped by the presence of Jesus. And when that happens,

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Speaker 1: our work, whatever form it takes, becomes one small way

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Speaker 1: we join Him in praying and living these familiar words,

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Speaker 1: your kingdom come, your will be done. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: listening to the Unhurried Living podcast. To learn more about us,

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Speaker 1: visit unhearing dot com. In the show notes, you'll find

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Speaker 1: helpful links and information about our partner, Live Audio and

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Speaker 1: all of their other faith centered podcasts