growing as a leader...

One of my constant prayers is that God would grow me as a leader. I pray that He would make me a great leader.
And not make me a great leader for my sake, so that I can climb some "corporate ladder" or some even more messed up "church hierarchical ladder". But I desperately pray for God to make me a great leader for His Name's sake! I want Him to make me into a great leader so that He can use me in big ways for His glory... ultimately to change the world for His renown.

I'm also not one to just sit around and pray for God to make me a great leader. I'm doing everything I can to become a better leader. I feel like God is blessing me and giving me opportunities to become better and better.
I do everything I know of to get better = read books, articles, go to conferences, listen to podcasts, meet with leaders, watch leaders, pick their brains and ask questions, get coaching, and put myself in positions where I can be stretched as a leader and hopefully become better.

But sometimes (probably a lot of times) God uses these unexpected scenarios to grow us as leaders.
And by unexpected I mean that's not really what I was praying for when I asked God to grow me as a leader! (I feel free to tell Him that in the moment too.)

You know what I'm talking about right? Maybe you've prayed for patience and God puts you in this line at the grocery store that doesn't seem to move when you're already late to be at your next spot. You just wanted God to make you patient... you didn't really want the process He was going to use to make you patient.

I feel like that is the way God makes us better leaders. Through these processes that aren't always what we would choose.

I can see it happening over and over again in my life. God prepares me and grows me in my leadership through a situation or a scenario or this process that I go through to become stronger and better - but it's not necessarily pleasant or easy.

And I'm like - "You could have just hooked me up with a free ticket to a leadership conference or something..."

But that's not the way God always grows us as leaders. In fact, I'm confident that God is growing me more through these circumstances than any conference. I'm not in it for "comfort" in the now, but I want God to use me to rock the world for the next 50-60 years!

So, God, I know I'm praying a dangerous prayer, BUT...
Bring it on. Bring whatever it takes. Ultimately use my life for Your glory.