Southwest Airlines offers a program called “Rapid Rewards.” The incentive is to fly Southwest Airlines and accumulate points that can be converted into rewards, i.e. free flights or merchandise.

What fascinates me is the marketing terminology used to appeal to our desire for the immediate.

Our culture is one driven by the immediate. We get frustrated when we pull up to a “drive through” and have to wait 2-3 minutes for a fast-food restaurant to bring our food to the car.

With the use of microwaves, computers, cell phones, and high speed internet, we tend to expect everything in an instant.

Sadly, this carries over into various areas of our leadership.

We want to take a class, read a book, or search the internet to find all we need to know about leadership. Lifelong development is not appealing.

We also place expectations on others with the same mindset. We expect others to make life altering changes immediately.

While we find benefits and consequences to the rapid approach to leadership, we are better served to learn we grow into the leader God is shaping us to be over a lifetime.