Not long ago, it seemed like everything was crashing around me. I was falling down on all my jobs. As a father and husband, I wasn't engaging and leading. As a soccer coach, I didn't put forth the effort I knew the kids needed from me. I was a failure in business; a division of the company I had created was headed for the chopping block. I was being criticized publicly. My finances weren't keeping up with my growing family's need: our adoption was about twice the cost we had expected, we needed to replace the roof, my Blackberry (which I had dropped) wasn't working, our cars needed repairs, and we had unexpected medical bills.

All this devastated my confidence. I felt I'd let down my family and partners. I was afraid of the future. I prayed, "Why are you taking me down so far, Lord? Why am I being humbled like this? Why have you chosen to remove your hand from me?"

Through my experience, God reminded me of Joseph, who was thrown in prison because someone was mad at him. While he was behind bars, the pharaoh's chief cupbearer, who had been in there with him, was released. He vowed to work for Joseph's release, but day after day passed, with no freedom in sight: "The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him." (Genesis 40:23)

Joseph wasn't just a failure, he was now forgotten. His dreams had crumbled around his feet, and now he could only wait. Fortunately, he was delivered two years later, and rose to one of the most powerful positions in the most powerful nation on the planet.

Do you feel stuck? Have you plateaued as a leader, or experienced a failure of some sort? Maybe you're just bored or wonder what's next in your leadership growth. Wherever you are, there is a truth written by King Solomon: "As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things." (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

Will God release you soon into a new role, as he did for Joseph? I don't know what my future holds, but I have learned to be patient. We don't always get the results we plan for. I need to let the wind blow, rather than try to fan it too hard. God will orchestrate my life in his own time, in his own way.

But in spite of whatever patience I can drum up, I still have a secret desire to grow now. If I could ask one thing, it would be to compress my growth curve and mature faster. That's dangerous, I know. It's like asking for more patience, and having your patience tried. But I still want to see if I can work with God toward my next level.

I've discovered that there is a biblical way to accelerate my leadership growth. We don't have to wait till the end of our lives to inventory all the wisdom we collected over the decades. If you're like me, I want to know now what I will know then. While that's not entirely possible, the Bible does lay out a simple strategy for stepping up our maturity and growth.

To build my case for this teaching, I'll start with three foundational principles:

1. God has placed me in leadership.  Even the Queen of Sheba recognized God's hand as Solomon took his throne. In 1 Kings 10:9 she says, "Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel." God establishes kings, government officials, and authorities of all kinds. You and I are in leadership because God has willed it.

2. God has ordained authorities over me.  In other words, I am not the end-all, even if I am the leader. In Romans, Paul teaches that though we may be leaders, there are always those to whom we are accountable, whether bosses, partners, boards, or governments. We are never to be out from under God's authority, which he exercises through these people. Their job is to correct us; they also protect us, sometimes from our own poor decisions.

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience." (Romans 13:1,5)

3. God has allowed difficulties in my life.  This is the third leg of the stool of leadership maturation. Romans 8:28 promises that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Even if we fail somehow in our God-given positions, he still put us right here, right now for a purpose, and for our ultimate good.

Now we come to the crown jewel of God's personal growth plan for us.  

The secret to accelerating our personal growth and maturity is very simple, but it's one of the most difficult things to do in the Christian walk.

I've found no greater method of growing as a leader. Experience is good, but it takes too long. Reading books and getting degrees are useful, but you forget most of what you learn, and they take even longer to complete.

The method is this:  Lean into your difficulties. 

How do we lean into our difficulties and suffering? In two primary ways:

1.  First, we must walk through the door opened by Romans 8:28. In the process of leadership development, it is not enough to be comforted that bad things will be for our good some day, though that comfort is priceless. We must lean forward and put one foot in front of the other, trusting in the strong hand of our Father - even through more pain and failure, if that's where he leads.

2.  Second, we should embrace our difficulties, and be thankful for them. Literally we are to rejoice in our troubles, and to ask for more! "[W]e also rejoice in our sufferings," Paul says, "because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4) To achieve these things, we must experience suffering. The more we suffer, the more mature we become.

The concept of refining through suffering is explained in 1 Peter 1:6-8: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

This is the goal of our personal development and maturity. It is not to achieve recognition or glory for ourselves, or even just to grow.  It is to develop a faith that will result in the glorification of our Savior, who himself suffered before emerging spotless and perfect.

Thoughts:
1.  What is your #1 difficulty right now that you need to lean into?
2.  Is there a difficult person in authority over you that God is using to correct or protect you?


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Tom Harper is president of NetWorld Alliance, a business-to-business publishing company in Louisville, Ky.

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Tom's books - Career Crossover: Leaving the Marketplace for Ministry (B&H, 2007) 
Leading from the Lions' Den: Leadership Principles from Every Book of the Bible (B&H, September, 2010)