Search for Significance

I began reading a book called Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey.  In the forward, C.J. Mahaney writes:

“Humility doesn’t have to quench ambition. And ambition- the right kind- doesn’t have to trample humility” (p. 9).

The more I thought about this and my own life, the more I see this tension.  Christian passion and zeal have often come across as being crazy, irrational, unbalanced, unrealistic, wacky, weird and even sinful because it can be prideful and against a “suffering” way of living as a Christian.  To run around in excitement and have ambition to see something grow (even if it is for God) somehow means that one is trying to draw attention to themselves rather than to God Himself.  It somehow means that searching for significance and doing things of significance has to be searching to be somebody important, to have the attention drawn to themselves.  And no doubt, you and I can name a few people or even ministries that do easily fit that stereotype.  So the result for many, including myself, is to make sure we live in opposition to ambition: “humility”.

Practically, I would always find myself checking my “pride” and choosing to remain humble in the form of sitting back and being quiet.  I would even praise my humble submissiveness (or blame others for being in my way) or I just thought I shouldn’t because I don’t know enough (intimidation hurts ambition too and expresses itself as a false humility).  So every few years, I realized I lost some passion.  Yet, as with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, there was a fire, deep inside, to proclaim what God had put in my heart: to proclaim ambition, to live according to something of worth, something of significance. I think it is a common track for many people.  I’ve enjoyed books like IT and Chazown by Craig Groeschel or Soul Print and Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson or Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels that speak about Christian passion and ambition and how to find it.

I’m slowly learning that humility can even be the wrong kind when it subverts the very gifts God has placed within us.  These gifts are God-designed for me to best bring Him something of worth, something of weight, and something of significance (the meaning of ‘glory’). The “search for significance” doesn’t have to equal sinfulness or selfishness.  I see too many of us living day to day without passion, ambition, joy or a sense of significance.  I believe we desire to know that we are doing something of value and of worth.  Sometimes we simply don’t know what that is and we’re tired of trying. Sometimes we just simply don’t see or hear the affect we’ve made with our time, influence and resources.  Sometimes we are tired of dealing with people telling us how to live out our gifts for the fulfillment of their passion.

There are a million reasons that can affect our ambition and joy. So, sitting back and just living life is less complicated, but it lacks joy, doesn’t it?  I don’t believe that it’s okay to live life knowing that we are here just to live and then to die and to be forgotten.  In one sense, this is a true reality as Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. But in another sense, it lacks the reality of Jesus in our lives. ”Suffering” for Christ does not mean it is without enjoyment, ambition and knowing our lives are of significance.

I hope to talk about what God sees as significant in the next coming posts.