What's your ambition?

Sometimes I have very grand plans. I’m going to read this hefty novel on holiday. I’m going to make this elaborate Persian feast in half an hour. I’m going to launch this product that’s going to soar in the popularity stakes, break the internet and entice a thousand retail buyers. But then sometimes I get overwhelmed, don’t start for fear that it wouldn’t immediately succeed and give up.

We sometimes hear the term ‘Godly ambition’. But what does that mean?

When things go well, without much effort, I have the slight temptation to think it’s me. But when things are hard, and I have to strive, and realise I can’t do it on my own, and completely surrender it to God (and say ‘God you do it. Regardless of if it’s a success or failure, I want you to do it’), God steps in. The joy afterwards is so much infinitely greater than if I did it myself. The delight tastes one hundred times better because He did it. It may have looked like I accomplished something but He stepped in and intervened in a miraculous way. The task went way better than if I just tried myself and He gets the glory. When that happens, don’t you feel compelled to tell everyone about it?

In everything we want God to get the glory.

The Bible says “do not despise these small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10). I was thinking about this and seeds. Seeds can feel a bit disappointing. We want the flowers, the tree… we want them now! But I was thinking about it and seeds are small but taste delicious (think topped on a salad). They’re tiny but they’re crunchy, impactful and transform a dish. And you never know if you plant them, how they’ll flourish.

Godly ambition means we want things for God. It’s about going lower. The Bible talks a lot about being humble. In everything we do we need to seek God first. Go lower. If we want to taste the joy of God getting the glory, we need to go lower in ourselves and say ‘God take this’. He’s given us gifts and talents. They come from Him anyway, so we want Him to have the control.

I once had a picture of a bouncy castle. You know how you can lean on the walls of the castle. I was reflecting on leaning into God like leaning into those walls: we lean, take that step of faith and He supports us. And bouncy castles are full of fun and joy. There’s a joy that comes when we lean.

It’s sometimes difficult to balance ambition with God. When we’re young and capable, it’s easy to try and do things in our own strength. But the kingdom of God is topsy-turvy. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

If we’re hidden and no one sees what we’re doing, that doesn’t matter. If we don’t get accolade or notice for years and years on end, it doesn’t matter. If actually ours isn’t the testimony that gets cited, it doesn’t matter. If we go low, do what He says and He is working through us and accomplishing His plans, that’s all that matters.

Worldly success often looks different to the plans of God. God chose to use Mary. In a crazy situation that had the potential for her to be ridiculed, outcast by society and look foolish, He brought into the world the best thing this earth has even seen: Jesus.

It’s interesting as God has created us so that we experience joy and freedom when He does things His way. He’s literally built us so that when the Holy Spirit is in control of us, we are the happiest (John 10:10). God says “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). It gives Him great delight to give His little children the kingdom and it gives us great delight to receive it. He knows us better than we know ourselves and when He does things through us, it’s a delight.

If we want to do great things for God, we actually need to take the low position. We need to get low, realise we can’t just do the task ourselves, give it to God, do what He says, lean in and He’ll support us. Even if it looks crazy, and we don’t have a plan, we lean. And when He does it, He’ll get the glory. If people praise us for what God’s done through us, we put the crown back at His feet. Being so yielded to Him that He does the seemingly impossible through me is the kind of ambition I want. Regardless of how it looks on the outside and how successful it seems, I want that.

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” Zechariah 4:6