Your Passion's Powerful Pull
Theme of the Week: Aim High
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: So it is right for me to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God (Romans 15:17). Bonus Reading: Rom. 15:15-22
Ambition is sustained drive that springs from intense desire. It is a single-minded craving for something, which combines with perseverance over time to cause movement in a particular direction.
Ambition drives one individual toward aggressive sales goals and dispatches another on a crime spree. Ambition sends some into retirement and draws others out of the golden years. It is captured by fill-in-the-word phrases like: "When I grow up I want to …" or, "My goal is to …" or, "I plan to …" or, "Do you think it would be possible for me to …" or, "I have been considering …" or, "I know I can …"
Sometimes ambition looks like a raging river that carves a valley into the geography. In other instances, it more accurately resembles a slow trickle of water that inexorably wears a smooth path through jagged rock. In either case, ambition gets you there from here.
Taken in an absolute sense, ambition is a neutral word. It can be either bad or good. A simple question distinguishes the positive from the negative: Is it motivated by self or by God? Obviously you will want to identify and eliminate unhealthy ambitions. But don't forget to add healthy ambitions.
—Steven Graves & Thomas Addington in Life@Work
My Response: An ambition I should eliminate is ____. One I should cultivate is ____.
Thought to Apply: Set yourself earnestly to discover what you're made to do, and then give yourself passionately to the doing of it. —Martin Luther King Jr. (civil rights activist)
Adapted from Life@Work (5-6/99) by permission.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Rechannel my ambitions, Lord, toward goals that demonstrate Your character and advance Your purposes.
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