Ambition

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ. Philippians 3:7-8

It Is ironic that I, who had little ambition, gained such influence while others, who would kill to have such influence, may still be seeking it. But I don’t think you necessarily find something by going directly at it.

When we were learning to spot airplanes in the dark, the navy taught us that the center part of our eyes are blind at night. If you try to look directly at where the sound of the plane is coming from at night, you never will see the plane. If you look to the right or the left of where you hear the sound, you’ll see the plane 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 have succeeded oftentimes have been ruthless in their attempts to achieve it and have left bodies scattered over the landscape.

Those who pursued meaningful service rather than direct ambition, however, often reached their goals. 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 personal ambition go by the way.

—Richard Nelson Bolles