Don Whitney, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed. In these selected excerpts, Whitney will help us consider ways to simplify our journaling, our prayer, our Christian life in general, our priorities, and our time in Scripture. In this post on priorities, Whitney will help us understand when ambition is godly so that we can live a peaceful life.
“He’s very ambitious.” Is that a compliment or a criticism? We know that it’s not like Christ to climb over people, to politick for influence, or be driven blindly for wealth, position, or fame. But it’s also unChristian to be slothful, dispassionate about the quality of your work, or without motivation.
One way to simplify your spirituality is to clarify your ambition. A biblical starting place is to recognize that two very different kinds of ambition are described in the New Testament.
The first is often presented as “selfish ambition” or “self-seeking.” This kind of ambition strains for personal gain at almost any cost. It’s the sort of ambition that characterizes the ungodly (see Galatians 5:20) and those under the wrath of God (see Romans 2:8). Self-seeking ambition has a partner: “bitter envy.” Together they often push a person to “boast and lie” (James 3:14) in order to get ahead or to hold others back. And in any heart, home, or workplace “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there” (James 3:16). Is there a more succinct description of a complicated life than one where “confusion and every evil thing” abound?
But there’s another kind of ambition described in the New Testament. We’re ambitious in a holy sense when we eagerly aspire for something that is right and good in God’s sight. Such ambition may be for things great or small, as long as the goal, method, and motivation are God-centered.
The Lord reveals another aspect of the right kind of ambition in the command of 1 Thessalonians 4:11—“make it your ambition to lead a quiet life” (NASB). That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, in the famous words of pioneer missionary William Carey, “Attempt great things for God.” Instead it speaks to the object of our ambition. Ourselves, or God? Only when our ambition is to have no selfish ambition can we hope for a quieter life. Regardless of the size, scope, or pace of our pursuits, we should always “have as our ambition . . . to be pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). Whenever this ambition falls second to selfish ambition the spiritual life will decline. The demands of the higher affection will steal time from the spiritual disciplines. And eventually this leads to a more complicated and frustrating life.
Don Whitney
Don Whitney holds the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is professor of biblical spirituality and the director of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. He is the author of several books.