So whether I am at home or away from home,
it is my constant ambition to please him.
2 Corinthians 5:9 WILLIAMS
It is the responsibility of the disciple to be the best he or
she can be for God. To please Him is a most worthy aim.
He wants us to realize the full purpose of our creation; He
does not want us to be content with bland mediocrity.
Many fail to achieve anything significant for God or man
because they lack a dominating ambition. No great task
was ever achieved without the complete abandonment to
it that a worthy ambition inspires.
Fred Mitchell was a pharmacist before he became the
British Director of the China Inland Mission. He told me
that when he was a student, he and a friend took a course
in optometry. One day the latter made a startling
statement that bordered on the realm of fantasy. "One day
I am going to be King George’s optometrist," he said. With
predictable skepticism Fred replied, "Oh, yes?" Fred then
asked me, "Do you know who is the King’s optometrist today? That same young man."
He was in the grip of a
master ambition that channeled his life in a single
direction, and he reached his goal.
We would do well to ask ourselves if we have any such
clearly defined ambition. Are we making the most of our
lives? Are we exercising our maximum influence for our
Lord?
The Place of Ambition
Our English word ambition is not a New Testament
word. It is derived from the Latin and has the doubtful
distinction of meaning "facing both ways to gain an
objective." A modern illustration of this word would be the
electioneering tactics of an unprincipled and ambivalent
politician canvassing for votes.
Worldly ambition can have a variety of ingredients, but it
usually follows three main lines: popularity, fame, the
desire to build a reputation; power, the desire to wield
authority over one’s fellows; wealth, the desire to amass a
fortune, with the power that brings. The fatal flaw with
such ambitions is that they all focus on self.
Even secular writers have seen the seamy side of such
ambition, which has justifiably been termed "the last
infirmity of noble minds." With his uncanny insight into the
heart of man, Shakespeare put these words into the
mouth of Cardinal Wolsey: "Cromwell, I charge thee, fling
away ambitions. By that sin fell the angels, how can man
then, the image of his Maker, hope to profit by it?"
But not all ambitions warrant these strictures. Paul employed a word that had a nobler
ancestry and could be
rendered "a love of honor." So 2 Corinthians 5:9 could be
rendered, "So we make it a point of honor to please him."
Further, Paul asserts that "to aspire to leadership is an
honorable ambition" (1 Timothy 3:1 NEB). Of course in this
connection the motivation would be the determining factor.
Too many disciples are content with the status quo and
cherish no ambition to improve their spiritual condition and
fulfill a more useful ministry.
At the Lord’s command Jeremiah communicated to
Baruch the divine exhortation: "Should you then seek great
things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5;
emphasis added). This injunction was not a blanket
prohibition of ambition. The operative words are "for
yourself." Baruch was counseled to forswear self-centered
ambition. Jesus made clear that an ambition to be great is
not in itself necessarily sinful (Mark 10:43). It was
ambition to be great from unworthy motives that He
denigrated. God needs great people whose dominant
ambition is to further the glory of God.
The Test of Ambition
James and John were both ambitious men, but their
ambition was almost entirely self-centered and therefore
unworthy. Their ambition peeps out of their request of the
Lord. "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your
left in your glory" (Mark 10:37). They actually asked Him
to reserve the best seats for them in His coming kingdom!
It was pure, unadulterated selfishness and warranted the rebuke it received:
"Not so with you" (v. 43). The kingdom
of God is founded on self-sacrifice, not on selfishness.
James and John asked for a crown of glory; Jesus chose a
crown of thorns. They wanted to rule over their fellows;
He told them that the road to greatness was by serving,
not by ruling. This is a tremendously important lesson for
the disciple to master.
The ambition of Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf, founder of
the great missionary Moravian church, was enshrined in
these words: "I have one passion: it is He, He alone!" This
Christ-centered passion and ambition was imprinted on
the church he led. It pioneered a world missions program
in a day when missionaries were few. For a hundred years
there arose night and day an unbroken stream of prayer
from the church at Herrnhutt. His was a worthy ambition
that found its center in Christ and reached the world.
We can test the quality of our own ambition with this
measuring stick: "Will the fulfillment of my ambition bring
glory to God and make me more useful to Him in reaching
out to a lost world?"
A Master Ambition
David Brainerd, early missionary to the Indians of the
United States, was so consumed with a passion for the
glory of Christ in the salvation of souls that he claimed: "I
cared not how or where I lived, or what hardships I
endured, so that I could but gain souls for Christ."
Paul was a passionately ambitious man, even before his
conversion. He could do nothing by halves. "I was exceedingly zealous,"
he declared. Always impatient of the
confining status quo, he constantly strained toward new
goals and horizons. There was in him a compulsion that
would brook no denial.
His conversion did not quench the flame of his zeal but
rather caused it to leap higher. Whereas his old ambition
had been to efface the name of Jesus and exterminate His
church, now he had a passion to exalt the name of Jesus
and establish and edify His church. His new ambition found
its center in the glory of Christ and the advancement of His
kingdom.
In later life Paul wrote:
It has always been my ambition to preach
the gospel where Christ was not known, so
that I would not be building on someone
else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written:
"Those who were not told about him will
see, and those who have not heard will
understand." (Romans 15:20-21)
One writer suggested that Paul suffered from spiritual
claustrophobia. His early commission had been to "Go . . .
far away to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21), and he was
ambitious to discharge that trust. He was haunted by the
"regions beyond," and every true disciple should share that
ambition.
Henry Martyn, brilliant scholar and gallant missionary,expressed his master
ambition in these words: "I desire
not to burn out for avarice, to burn out for ambition, to
burn out for self, but looking up at that great Burnt-
offering, to burn out for God and His world."
Paul’s ambition was fired by two powerful motives. First
was the love of Christ, which "compelled" him, left him no
option (2 Corinthians 5:14). That was the love that had
captured and broken his rebellious heart. Second was a
sense of inescapable obligation. "I feel myself under a sort
of universal obligation," he said. "I owe something to all
men, from cultured Greek to ignorant savage" (Romans
1:14 PHILLIPS). Since all men were included in the scope of
Christ’s salvation, he felt equally indebted to all classes.
Social status, poverty, illiteracy were alike irrelevant to
him. His ambition was funneled into a single channel-"this
one thing I do"-and it unified his whole life.
It is small wonder he succeeded in the face of daunting
difficulties when he was so willing to pay the price of
spiritual excellence. In his great poem "St. Paul," F. W. H.
Myers highlights this:
How have I knelt with arms of my aspiring,
Lifted all night in irresponsive air, Dazed
and amazed with overmuch desiring, Blank
with the utter agony of prayer.
At the funeral of Dawson Trotman, founder of the
Wide-spreading Navigator movement, Billy Graham-delivered the sermon.
In the course of his address he
made this revealing statement: "Here was a man who did
not say, ‘These forty things I dabble in,’ but, ‘This one
thing I do.’" A master ambition such as that overcomes all
obstacles and thrives on difficulties and discouragements.
Our Lord was gripped by a master ambition that
integrated the whole of His life. It can be summarized in a
single sentence: "I have come to do your will, O God"
(Hebrews 10:7). When at life’s end He offered His
wonderful high-priestly prayer, He was able to report the
complete achievement of this ambition: "I have brought
you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to
do" (John 17:4).
Contested Ambition
As with the Master, so the ambition of the disciple will
be challenged all along the way. There was so much to
weaken His resolve and deflect Him from His purpose-the
malignity of His enemies, the fickleness of His friends, and
even the attempted dissuasion of His intimates.
Through years of mounting disappointments, Joseph
maintained his integrity and loyalty to his God. One day in
the course of his duties, the wife of Potiphar, his master,
tried to seduce him. His godly purpose to keep himself
pure stood him in good stead in the first shock of the
unexpected temptation. But it was a constantly repeated
assault: "Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he
refused to go to bed with her or even be with her"
(Genesis 39:10). His purpose was challenged every day.The Devil is a persistent tempter.
A study of the lives of men and women who have
achieved great things for Christ and His church reveals
that they have this in common: they cherished a master
ambition.
Jonathan Edwards, noted revivalist and educator,
declared: "I will live with all my life while I live."
The founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth,
claimed: "So far as I know, God has had all there was of
me."
With all the resources of God at our disposal, we need
not plead our weakness or inadequacy as an excuse for
poor performance. The least promising among us may yet
be used greatly by God.
Thomas Scott, 1747-1821, was the dunce of his school.
The teachers expected little of him, so why bother with
him? But his brain and heart only needed to be awakened.
One day some statement of a teacher penetrated his
deepest being.
Then and there he formed a resolute purpose, a master
ambition. Although his progress was slow, the teachers
noticed a difference. He grew to be a strong and worthy
man and succeeded the noted former slave-trader John
Newton, composer of the hymn "Amazing Grace," as
rector of the church at Aston Sand-ford. He also wrote a
large and valuable commentary on the whole Bible, which
had a great influence on his generation. So valuable was
the work of this erstwhile dunce that the commentary is
still available in America today.Other class members are all forgotten. The one of
whom least was expected, and who labored under the
greatest handicap, is the one whose name and influence
endures. And all because he was gripped by a master
ambition.
In an article in Crusade magazine, John R. W. Stott has
this to say about the lack of worthy ambition in our day:
The motto of our generation is, "Safety
first." Many young men are looking for a
safe job in which they can feather their
nest, secure their future, insure their lives,
reduce all risks, and retire on a fat
pension.
There is nothing wrong in providing for
your future, but this spirit pervades our
lives until life becomes soft and padded
a n d all adventure is gone. We are so
thickly wrapped in cotton wool that we can
neither feel the pain of the world nor hear
the Word of God. . . .
Jesus did not remain in the social
immunity of heaven, or hide away in the
safety of the skies. He entered the zone of
danger, risking contamination. . . . How
can we make safety our ambition?
If we embrace Paul’s ambition "to please Him," we will-discover that at the
same time we are pleasing everyone
else who is worth pleasing.