Here is another question from a young seminarian, whose questions I am answering on this blog.
YS: What place does ambition have in the redemptive life?
Mike: You don’t ask the easy ones do you ;-). This is one of those that can be so tricky. Certainly there is a place for ambition. God gives us passions and visions for a reason. We are to seek first His Kingdom. There is something very ambitious about that.
Yet, ambition can very subtly become about personal desires, disguised by something else. Let me illustrate. It is good to be ambitious for God’s Kingdom. Many people are ambitiously focusing in on certain parts of God’s Kingdom. Often pastors are focused on building a certain church. When I church planted I was ambitious about building that church. Yet, while I truly wanted to build Christ’s church, I know other motives of proving myself and being noticed mixed in to greater or lesser degrees. We need to check ourselves when we say we are ambitious about God’s kingdom and ask ourselves what part of that has slipped over into building our own little kingdom around our circle of influence and clothing it with “God’s Kingdom” language.
God presently has me focused on building a ministry that brings substantive Christ-like change to many people. If I am so busy telling people about that and ambitiously looking for leads and openings, that I do not ask questions about or take time to listen to what others are focused on in the Kingdom I probably have let that ambition go too far. Whenever I feel myself exceedingly zealous about something, I need to ask myself if that strength of ambition is warranted or if it is about something else like my own neurosis.
We do need to be ambitious about a life with God. I want to be ambitious about living closer to God, better mirroring my Lord and Savior. We do need to be ambitious about living like Christ. Yet over-ambition in that regard can lead to legalism. We do need to be ambitious for the presence and expression of grace. Some have been overambitious and in the name of grace become licentious.
Some people become so ambitious and competitive in sports or politics that when the game is done or the political race is done their opponent has become a lifelong enemy. Yet periodically you see a fierce competitor who loses and after losing speaks graciously about the victor, genuinely thanking the victor for a vigorous challenge and wishing the victor well. John McCain’s concession speech to President Obama was an example of this. This is a good way to hold ambition.
Be ambitious but be careful not to hold it too tightly. Hold ambition loosely. After all, we are fallen creatures and what we think God wants us to be ambitious about may have a flaw that we are blind to. The Crusaders are an example of people ambitious for God who, out of a strong grasp of that ambition did things that were not of God, like murdering people because of their skin color and the living location.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Back at it.
I can hardly believe it has been 6 weeks since I last wrote here. My writing tends to be sporadic. I get inspired and am more prolific for a bit and then for a period under the weight of other demands and deadlines I have a hard time getting my head into writing.
Over the last six weeks I spent time both in El Paso, TX and in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In one way, these both were artsy trips. In El Paso, I spent a couple days with friend and fellow board member, Geronimo Garcia at his cool company Geronimo Design Inc. We worked on how to get the word out about Ascending Leaders in 2011. You will begin to see results of our work in a month or two. Our HighPoint this month will be our first release of some of the results of these fun couple days together.
While in West Michigan, I was at a conference in Grand Rapids at the same time that “ArtPrize” was coming to a close. ArtPrize is a rather cool period of several weeks during which artwork of many different types are set up around the urban landscape of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Artist of various ability and experience can enter their art. People can vote on the art they like best. At the end, there are several divisional winners and one winner of the grand prize of $250,000. The winner revealed something about the art taste of west Michigan—a huge mural of a picture from a war gone by. The whole thing was done in pencil.
The conference I was there for was that of Partners Worldwide. They had 400 business people from around the world to talk about issues about how Christian businesspeople could use their acquired knowhow to mentor business men and women in developing countries. Why would Ascending Leaders be represented at a conference like that? Spiritual growth is an important piece of Christian business mentoring, both for the mentors and mentees and that is what we are stellar at.
A friend, Terry Butler, was there showing off something that bridged both the artprize world and the partners worldwide. He was showing off Dynablock—a machine that can fit on a single axle trailer (yes he pulled it from Iowa behind his truck) and can make blocks something like cinder blocks on site. It saves lots of transportation issues and costs of ordering and shipping cinder blocks for construction. I first heard about this machine 4 years ago when I was first introduced to Terry. It is a wonder for construction—especially useful in developing countries. It is a practical work of art itself. Terry is creatively thinking of including a copy of Ascending Leaders Thriving Love with the instruction manual of each machine sold. That will be an interesting mix.
While in Grand Rapids, Michigan I taught a 3 day class on discipleship at Calvin Seminary. It was a great experience for the 11 students and myself. The first morning we began sitting in classic lecture style. By the last day of class students were sitting in pods of triads going deep together. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I quite possibly got more out of it than they did, though several students have communicated how much they got out of the experience.
Coming soon: another question from my young seminarian friend.
Over the last six weeks I spent time both in El Paso, TX and in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In one way, these both were artsy trips. In El Paso, I spent a couple days with friend and fellow board member, Geronimo Garcia at his cool company Geronimo Design Inc. We worked on how to get the word out about Ascending Leaders in 2011. You will begin to see results of our work in a month or two. Our HighPoint this month will be our first release of some of the results of these fun couple days together.
While in West Michigan, I was at a conference in Grand Rapids at the same time that “ArtPrize” was coming to a close. ArtPrize is a rather cool period of several weeks during which artwork of many different types are set up around the urban landscape of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Artist of various ability and experience can enter their art. People can vote on the art they like best. At the end, there are several divisional winners and one winner of the grand prize of $250,000. The winner revealed something about the art taste of west Michigan—a huge mural of a picture from a war gone by. The whole thing was done in pencil.
The conference I was there for was that of Partners Worldwide. They had 400 business people from around the world to talk about issues about how Christian businesspeople could use their acquired knowhow to mentor business men and women in developing countries. Why would Ascending Leaders be represented at a conference like that? Spiritual growth is an important piece of Christian business mentoring, both for the mentors and mentees and that is what we are stellar at.
A friend, Terry Butler, was there showing off something that bridged both the artprize world and the partners worldwide. He was showing off Dynablock—a machine that can fit on a single axle trailer (yes he pulled it from Iowa behind his truck) and can make blocks something like cinder blocks on site. It saves lots of transportation issues and costs of ordering and shipping cinder blocks for construction. I first heard about this machine 4 years ago when I was first introduced to Terry. It is a wonder for construction—especially useful in developing countries. It is a practical work of art itself. Terry is creatively thinking of including a copy of Ascending Leaders Thriving Love with the instruction manual of each machine sold. That will be an interesting mix.
While in Grand Rapids, Michigan I taught a 3 day class on discipleship at Calvin Seminary. It was a great experience for the 11 students and myself. The first morning we began sitting in classic lecture style. By the last day of class students were sitting in pods of triads going deep together. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I quite possibly got more out of it than they did, though several students have communicated how much they got out of the experience.
Coming soon: another question from my young seminarian friend.
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