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, hobbies, and careers, among other things. These are not bad or wrong pursuits, but on their own, none 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 is, what glory am I pursuing? If we hope to rescue ambition, we must pursue God. And God rewards that pursuit with eternal life and an abiding relationship that invites us into partnership with God in this life. How do we partner with God in this life? Jesus told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Loving others is a tangible way of pursuing God’s glory. That loving action was a powerful witness in the first century.
“Part of the power of the early church’s witness to the world was the way in which they put this “one another” love into practice. In the Book of Acts we read, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need” (Acts 4:32,34–35).“Therefore, as we have opportunity,” Paul wrote, “let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal. 6:10). Paul says “especially,” but certainly he did not mean “exclusively.” Our love is not to be restricted to our fellow Christians, for when Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?”, he told a story pointing to the example of that good Samaritan, that religious outsider, who showed love to a man he happened to meet along the road while traveling down to Jericho. His neighbor was the person God had placed in his path. We are called by God to love our neighbor, whoever that may be. And Jesus calls us to love even our enemies, for that is the way God loves (Matt. 5:43–47; Rom. 5:8–10).” [2]
Let us love God with everything that we have. Then, out of the love that we’ve received from God, let us love our neighbors. And in that, may we ambitiously pursue the glory of God on this side of heaven.
[1] Harvey, Dave. Rescuing Ambition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010. (21-22)
[2] Evangelical Free Church of America, Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America, 2nd Edition (Minneapolis, MN: Free Church Publications; NextStep Resources, 2022), 170.