ambition...

Is ambition consistent with following Jesus?

That was the question posed last night in our Small Group. Frankly, I'm a little torn about the answer.

It seems like the picture of Christianity in the church often is very docile...nice guys sitting in a room together doing whatever seems to come up. But I'm not sure this is the picture of Jesus. I think Jesus was very ambitious...he knew that he had a limited amount of time to accomplish His Father's will...which led him to the cross.

But in my mind, ambition often leads one to greater and greater achievement, responsibility, and the attention of others. Jesus' ambition drove him to a disgraceful death. Yes his life was filled with strategic investment of time and energy.

So, in some ways, ambition seems very consistent with following Jesus. Yet not a selfish ambition (which is the point I think James is making in James chapter 3 of the New Testament). It's an ambition to please the Father.

Ambition people make intentional, strategic decisions in how they spend time, money, energy. For example, great athletes spend everything on acheiving greatness in their field...everything they do moves them in that direction.

What would it look like for a follow of Jesus to be so ambitious that everything they did moved them close to Christ and the will of the Father? What if all my time, energy, money...everything was for that one goal?

I think that would be pretty ambition, don't you?

I'm a pretty driven person. I wrestle with that a lot in my own spirit. There are parts of that drive that aren't healthy. But some of that is just born in me. Understanding godly ambition means that I get to be who God made me to be by letting His Spirit harness it for His purposes, not my own.

That's good news to me...

Peace,

Matt