Curbing Selfish Ambition
If you have been tracking with me and my last few posts, you know that hurry sickness and distraction from technology make it nearly impossible to be fully present to God, others, and even our own soul.
For my third and final blindspot, let's look at Paul's letter to the church at Galatia.
In his letter, Paul warns about the sins of the flesh: "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies." (Galatians 5:19-21 NIV)
Looking closer at this list of sins, some are quite obvious and easy to spot in ourselves and others. However, there is one that is more subtle and, until recently, a complete blindspot in my life.
Selfish Ambition.
What is Selfish Ambition?
What is ambition, and what does it look like when it decays into selfish or self-seeking ambition?
Ambition is that inner drive or determination that propels a person towards a specific goal or aim. A healthy amount of ambition is not a bad thing and has served me well in business and athletics over the years. But ambition without boundaries, for a highly driven person like myself, can get off the rails very quickly.
Again, Paul warns that we should "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.”(Philippians 2:3 NIV) And just a few books later in the New Testament, James writes, "for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."(James 3:16 NIV)
Selfish ambition manifests itself when we stop listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit.
Obedience to the Holy Spirit subtly degrades into unhealthy hustle and drive.
Hustle and drive then set unrealistic goals.
Goals that God never asked us to pursue.
Pride That Leads To A Messiah Complex
In my life, when you combine the excitement of a new calling from God, a natural bent toward helping others, and a mission statement mainly focused on partnering with God - but then remove all limits of time spent on said calling - you end up with a grievous messiah complex.
The sin of pride sets fire to the messiah complex living deep within each of us. "Pride is a persistent problem for people who strive for spiritual growth," warns John Ortberg. "God's great, holy joke about the messiah complex is this: Every human being who has ever lived has suffered from it - except one. And He was the messiah."(1)
When I fall headlong into the messiah complex trap, I believe the lie that I have to be the person who saves, helps and gives to everyone and everything. I see a need and assume that I must meet it. Somehow, in my mind, the Enemy tricks me into thinking that I am the only person qualified to fill this need.
Living into the easy yoke that Jesus offers means only saying yes to the load God has asked you and me to carry. "Because progress gives us more and more of everything faster and faster, the obvious result is steadily increasing options, opportunities, and obligations," observes Dr. Richard A. Swenson. "Meanwhile, we are stuck with the 24-hour day. The inevitable collision between this escalating context and a fixed time frame catapults the word No to the front of the class."(2) Furthering this idea, Dave Buehring offers these words of wisdom, "what God initiates He permeates, what you initiate you have to sustain."(3)
Ugh! How many times have I said yes to an activity or commitment without asking God for the green light?
Only to find myself weeks later carrying a heavy burden and feeling exhausted from sustaining a commitment that God never asked me to step into.
Looking back over the last few months, I now know that God has called me to commit my life to study His Word and to share with others the hope of the Gospel through writing and teaching.
Obedience To God’s Calling
But what does it look like for me to obey God's calling in my current season of life?
How do I put healthy boundaries around the activities and commitments necessary to fulfill what God is asking me to do?
How do I continue to say yes to margin and no to overload in order to remain available to God's spontaneous leading both now and in the future?
Honestly, the answers to these questions are continuously being revealed to me by the Holy Spirit one day at a time. However, I have learned that discerning the answers to these questions is best done in community.
Godly community helps to put boundaries on our inner drive, helping us fight our natural bent towards individualism and self-righteous service. Community, when done right, gives us a place to share and be accountable to others for how we spend our time and what we say yes to. Community gives us fresh eyes to see from the perspective of others that which we can't see on our own.
Proverbs 18:1 warns, "whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement." Healthy community helps us fight the temptation to hear from God in isolation.
Three Blindspots
So there you have it. Three blindspots that I and maybe you struggle with.
Hurry sickness that attacks our ability to be patient, loving, and present to other people.
Distraction from the technology in our lives that tricks us into spending our time on things that will be here today but gone tomorrow.
Selfish ambition that just can't say NO to activities and commitments that God never asked us to say yes to.
So maybe you're thinking.
That's great.
But.
How do I fight hurry, avoid distraction, and curb selfish ambition in my everyday life?
Are there any practices or spiritual disciplines from the life of Christ that could help us?
(Short answer) Absolutely there are! Actually, there are several.
And so, that is where we are headed over the next few months.
Notes
John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines For Ordinary People (Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1997)
Dr. Richard A. Swenson, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives (Colorado Springs, CO, Navpress, 2004)
Dave Buehring & Lionshare (Podcast) Wisdom Unlocked: The Ways of God - S3 Ep 11 Jesus Paced Himself. Do You? (May 31, 2021)
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