Do you remember the Monster.com television ad that aired during Superbowl XXXIII in 1999? It featured clips of tongue-in-cheek blurbs by kids saying things like: “I want to file all day;” “I want to claw my way to middle management;” “I want to be a Yes Man!” What makes the commercial so funny, of course, is that none of us had such lackluster dreams as kids.

 

As kids, we believed that we could do anything. Become President of the United States? Sure! Fly on the first manned mission to Mars? Totally! We all have a desire for greatness. Having ambition helps us focus on our goals and stay on track to see them through completion. Think about it:

 

• What would have happened if Noah was not ambitious enough to finish building the ark? (He was 600 years old when the flood came!)

 

• What if Moses had gotten cold feet while he was on Mount Sinai and didn’t have the ambition to follow through on God’s instructions? (Like recording the Ten Commandments!)

 

• What if Paul had not been ambitious to go on missionary journeys and take Jesus’ message to the Gentiles? (What a setback that would have been for the early church!)

 

Ambition, in and of itself, is not wrong. Where we veer off-course is when we focus our goals on personal glorification instead of God’s glory. Let’s redirect our prayer time this week toward ambition balanced with humility.