For one reason or another, I have been hearing/reading/thinking a lot about leadership lately. We put a lot of trust in politicians, church leaders, family, friends. I don’t often think of the ramifications of leadership, or the fallout of bad leadership. It’s hard enough being a husband and connection group leader, I can’t imagine being a king.

Give the king Your judgments, O God,
And Your righteousness to the king’s son.
May he judge Your people with righteousness
And Your afflicted with justice.

I love this prayer. God was willing to give Solomon anything he wanted, and all he asked for was wisdom. And for the first half of his life, he was a pretty awesome leader. He knew what it meant to be a man of God.

I’m not a big Mark Driscoll fan (I find him brash, and somewhat lacking in humility – you can be brutally honest and humble at the same time), but he’s in the middle of a series through the letters from Peter. Last week Driscoll talked about what it means to be a man. He made some good points about our responsibilities, but what struck me the most was his point that Jesus was the perfect man. I mean, yeah, I know He was perfect, but I never thought of Him as the perfect example of what a man should be.

Jesus embodied wisdom, righteousness, and justice, the very thing Solomon prayed for in Psalm 72. But Jesus didn’t show up and demand the spotlight, assume the leadership of Rome, and try and transform the world with ordinances. The leadership of Jesus was subversive to the extent that He transformed people, and the transformation of those people was going to change the face of a people, a region, and eventually the world.

Without going down a political road of how we advocate change, I just wonder if I am seeking to be the kind of leader that comes alongside the power of the Holy Spirit to help change people. I pray that wisdom, righteousness, and justice would be the mark of my leadership.