But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Character Check Can I accomplish something without caring whether I get the credit?
In Business Terms It is ironic that I, who had little ambition, gained such influence, while others, who would kill to have this kind of effect, may still be seeking it. I don’t think you find something by going directly at it.
When the Navy trained us to spot airplanes at night, they said the center part of your eye is blind at night. If you try to look directly at the sound at night, you never will see the plane. If you look to the right or the left of the sound, you’ll see it out of the part of your eye that isn’t night-blind. Ambition is like that.
People who pursue ambitious goals often are some of the most frustrated people in the world. And those who succeeded oftentimes have been ruthless in achieving it and have left bodies scattered over the landscape.
But for every one of the achievers-even the honest ones-there is an enormous number of people who years ago offered themselves for ministry and have never come close to achieving their goals. So we have to offer ourselves to God to do whatever he wants us to do, and let the ambition go by the way.
—Richard Nelson Bolles
Something to Think About So many missionaries, intent on doing something, forget that God’s main work is to make something of them. – Jim Elliot
