A Spiritual Practice for Seeking the Best for Others

What does it mean to seek the best for others?

Through our Flourishing Leaders Research project, we learned that healthy leaders understand that their own flourishing is connected to the flourishing of those they lead. We heard story after story about how leaders across industries and levels of influence sought the best for those entrusted to their care—whether they were co-workers, clients, customers, or shareholders.

Seeking the best for others is not only a consistent theme in our data, but it’s also a prominent theme in Scripture. The story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37 demonstrates how neighborly love should animate our actions toward others in creative and even risky ways. It reveals how our flourishing involves care for other people, even those we might consider outsiders or enemies. And most importantly, it is a key teaching of Jesus that should shape how his followers live, work, and lead.

For this exercise, we are going to engage in the practice of imaginative prayer focused on the story of the Good Samaritan and reflect on how we can learn to seek the best for others as leaders. While the practice will invite you to find yourself in any character or object in the story, you’ll be invited to reflect at the end about how this story and your imaginative prayer experience helped shape a new understanding of your call to care for others as a leader.

What is Imaginative Prayer?

Imaginative prayer is an Ignatian practice that involves reading a Gospel story with the intent of placing yourself in the story and imagining how you would participate in it as it unfolds in your imagination. Imaginative prayer helps us open up to the Holy Spirit in the story, invite God to speak to us through our imagination, and experience Jesus in more intimate and personal ways.

Offer your time of prayer to God, then trust that God is communicating with you. If you wonder whether your imagination is going “too far,” then do some discernment with how you are praying. Where did your imagination lead you: Closer to God or farther away? Remember, the goal is to let Scripture expand our imagination and not change the Gospel.

Some people find imaginative prayer difficult. You may not be able to picture the scene easily, yet you may have some intuition or gut reaction to the story. Or you may hear or feel the story more than visualize it. In a spirit of generosity, pray as you are able; don’t try to force it. Rest assured that God will speak to you, whether through your memory, understanding, intellect, emotions, or imagination.

The Practice

Step 1. Read and/or listen to the story of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25-37. We recommend having the story open in your own Bible to easily return to.

For the first reading, pay attention to the broad strokes:

• Where and when does it take place?
• Who is there?
• What happens?

Step 2. Read and/or listen to the story a second time. In this second reading, listen for more details:

• Who are the major characters?
• Who else is there, and what are they doing?
• How do these characters interact?
• What is the setting like? What time of day is it?

Step 3. Read and/or listen to the story a third time. In this third reading, notice more detail and begin to feel yourself in the story:

• Who are you, or what are you? (You may be an inanimate object, an animal, part of the scenery; you may be a person or thing that is not mentioned in the story, but that you sense as you hear it read.)
• What are you doing, thinking, feeling, or what is being done to you?
• What does it feel like to be there? What do you smell, taste, or hear?
• What are the emotions and the undertones that you notice?

Step 4. Read and/or listen to the story a fourth and final time. In this final reading, experience the story as the person or object that you are in the story. Let the story continue to unfold within you, in your imagination, mind, and heart.

Reflection

The stories found in Scripture and the redeeming experiences in our own lives shape the way we engage with God, others, and the world. We can interact with stories like the Good Samaritan and practice the hopeful, redemptive imagination we need to envision what it looks like to seek the best for others in our work and leadership.

Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below. We also invite you to share with a trusted friend or mentor what you experienced.

1. What emotions, thoughts, or physical sensations came up for you during the practice activity above? How were you drawn into the story?
2. As you imagined yourself in the story, what did you hear? What did you say or what was said to you? What did you do?
3. How did imagining yourself in the story of the Good Samaritan expand your imagination of what it might look like to seek the best for others?

This exercise is adapted from our Road Ahead Online Course.