Hope

True Ambition

In today’s world, lives are characterized by the amount of activity in them. Think about it. The last time someone asked you how you were, how long did it take for your reply to center around what you were doing, rather than the nature of your being. If you’re like most people, probably not long. We measure our lives by what fills up our calendar (or our PDA’s.)

The reasons for this may be profound, and for each of us, there might be some variations. However, the central cause may be because we’ve come to measure our lives based on what we can accomplish. We praise ambition in our children, because we think it bodes well for them in life. We look for the empolyee who completes their task, completely, and on time and is looking for the next assignment. These are good characteristics, and employers and parents rightly cultivate these in their charges. They aren’t, however, the characteristics that God looks act. Instead, He has one criteria for evaluating the Christian’s life – how much are they reflecting Christ? Is the person more like their Savior than they were yesterday? Are they seeking to demonstrate love, joy, and peace to an even greater extent. This is the ambition that He is mindful of and as His children, so should we.

It is a wonderful thing to have dreams and plans for what we want to accomplish. It’s even better to have a high view of why we are accomplishing those things. May our eyes be ever fixed on Christ – that more of Him in our life, may be the one ambition we also seek to fulfill.

Continue Reading

Hope Relationships

Questioning Faith

Death is not a topic that most people like to talk about. It’s a little odd that this is the case since as George Bernard Shaw is quoted as stating, “The statistics on death are impressive.” We all die, yet despite this shared state, it’s a subject we like to avoid.

There are probably many reasons for this discomfort. We don’t like to think of our limits; we’d rather focus on our accomplishments. For many in may be an uncertainty of what happens after we die, or it may remind us of all that we still want to do. Regardless of the cause, death is a subject, as well as an entity, that most people choose to ignore.

The problem with this is that if we all avoid talking about death, there is little hope that we will have ever confidence in what the afterlife holds. After all, there can’t be an afterlife without the ending of life as we know it. And the concern is not for our lives alone. As Christians, we can know with certainty that we’ll spend forever in heaven, but can we have the same certainty about our family and friends? Do our believing friends have the same confidence about us?

It’s often been asked, “if you were put on trial for being a conviction would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Let us make sure that the answer to that question is a resounding yes. So that, when it is our time to add to the impressive statistic, no one questions where our faith stands.

Continue Reading