Ambition is often celebrated in our world.
We applaud the man or woman who had a dream and wouldn’t let anything stop them from achieving it.
We celebrate the athlete who pushed through obstacles in order to reach the pinnacle of their sport.
We read biographies of military leaders who overcame the odds to win decisive battles.
And we admire the entrepreneurs who built mammoth enterprises from seemingly nothing more than pure ingenuity and hard work.
We celebrate ambition because we long to accomplish similar feats. We want to be great; we want to matter. At the end of the day, we want our life to be significant – not only for who we are but for what we achieved.
The Christian, however, must have a different take on ambition. Their ambition shouldn’t be that they would be acclaimed but that Christ would be. Our focus shouldn’t be on making ourselves look good, but ensuring that He does. Our lives should echo the words of John the Baptist – “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30).
Most of the time we know this. We are well aware of the fact that our lives should be about God’s glory and not our own. Far too often, however, we fail to live it out. We let our own concerns and our own priorities cloud our perspective. We let our fears drive us to worry rather than trust in His provision. Our insecurities prompt us to fight for “what is ours” rather than giving it al to Him.
Our words say we want to live for God but our lives tell a different story. As one speaker recently shared, if we want to see what is important to someone you just need to look at three things – their calendar, their checkbook, and their conversation. As we ponder each of these things can we honestly say that we are living lives that our fully ambitious for Christ? Are we managing our time well in order to invest in the things that will have eternal significance? Are we driven towards good stewardship so that we are taken care of or so that God may use these resources to further His Kingdom? Is our conversation “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6) so that it both preserve and protects for the sake of His renown?
Christians should be ambitious, but we should be selflessly so. Our ambition, our drive and our efforts should be focused on bringing our Savior praise and increasing knowledge and love of Him. May this be what propels us. May our hearts and minds be so focused on displaying His greatness that we are concerned with how people perceive us only insomuch as it reflects on the One we serve and praise.