Rescuing Ambition
What is the most glorious and ambitious dream you’ve ever had? When I was 5 or 6, my greatest ambition was to be a cowboy. My parents have video evidence of me dressed up in chaps, a vest, and a cowboy hat with a toy guitar singing a song about wanting to be a cowboy. You might be able to bribe them into showing it to you, but that will also require a VHS player. Each of us can think of an ambitious dream we had when we were kids, and when we do, most of us will smile or laugh at the purity of that ambition. However, as we became adults, something changed about ambition. It went from pure and innocent to a dirty little secret we never talk about in polite social circles.
Is that how it is supposed to be? Or can ambition be redeemed?
Ambition, at its core, is about pursuit. And we pursue the things that we love. We pursue our spouses, children, vocations, and careers, among other things. These are not bad or wrong pursuits, but none on their own will ever be able to fulfill us, make us whole, or satisfy our ambition. Why? Because, as Dave Harvey says, “we are glory chasers.” He goes on to say this, “we’re all born glory chasers. Glory moments stir us. Think about what prompts your elation. Your favorite team wins the championship. You read about a blind man climbing Everest. You watch an Olympic gymnast dismounting flawlessly to grab the gold. You learned that Beethoven would sit down and improvise pieces at the piano that witnesses swear were finer than his written compositions. You hear the story again of Wilberforce prevailing over parliament to end the slave trade. We’re awed by great comebacks, heroic efforts, sacrificial endurance, and extraordinary gifts. Glory arrests our attention. … Glory grabs us. But even more than that, it arouses something in our souls. It stirs us. We experience something totally vicarious, some strange exercise in identification. And make no mistake, it goes deep. It calls to something we value. To do something that matters. To seek something greater than our own puny existence. It’s an instinct for glory.” [1]
Why is this?
Because we were created by God to know God and experience his limitless glory. Here is what Solomon had to say about the nature of the glory of God, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27) Simply put, we were wired to be glory chasers because we were created to know and enjoy God.
Ambition is all about pursuit, the question that lingers before us, what glory am I pursuing? If we hope to rescue ambition, we must pursue God. And God rewards that pursuit with eternal life and abiding relationship.
[1] Harvey, Dave. Rescuing Ambition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010. (21-22)