“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
Salvador Dalí quotes (Spanish painter, 1904-1989)
The point he’s making is clear: whatever natural abilities we have, we will not make the most of them unless we have ambition: a desire to use that which has been given us to serve some end.
What is your ambition? What are you intent on achieving with you life?
Fame? I wonder how many people around the country are already rehearsing their skills in order to attempt to have half a chance of fame in next year’s Britain’s got talent.
Wealth? Oscar Wilde once said, “Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth.”
Other ambitions seem far more down to earth than seeking untold wealth or fame, and yet can be just as much of a driving force in our lives. Perhaps you feel your ambitions are much more reasonable, and less, well... ambitious.
· A stable family
· A successful career
· A peaceful life
· Living to meet one’s great grandchildren
· Having a child
· Holding down a job
· Getting out of debt.
· Kicking a bad habit.
· Owning you own home
Perhaps you ahve to admit that you’ve given up on ambition. Your hopes have passed you by, and now you are content to live one day at a time, but occasionally you wonder if your life had become directionless: you feel as if you are not longer living, but only existing.
Ambition becomes a driving force that motivates one to sacrifice a great deal in order to serve your ambition.
What are you ambitious for?
What sacrifices are you willing to make in order to realise that ambition?
It is an important question because our ambitions set the direction of our lives, as much as we are able.
And in setting our life’s direction, it reveals what we think the purpose of life is.
What do your ambitions say about your understanding of the purpose of life?
Judges 10-12 introduces a new character who is nothing if not ambitious...
What do we do then if the Lord hasn’t spoken clearly on an issue: like our choice of career, church, or marriage partner?
I remember someone preaching this passage when I was a child and talking about how he had ‘laid out a fleece’ when he was uncertain as to whether to propose to his wife: he had said to the Lord that if three people talked about rings that day, then he’d propose to his wife that evening. Three people mentioned rings that day, and, by God's grace they were still happily married decades later.
Are these less than clear decisions the time to lay out a fleece? No! we are nowhere told that in Scripture; it just isn't a biblical model of how we are to make decision. Clearly God can direct our steps in very personal and clear ways; we are never told to wait for him to do that before we make decisions though: we are to pray for wisdom, search for wisdom in his word, and seek the wisdom of other disciples, and then make a decision that we trust will be wise. Indecisiveness is not a sign of humility; it is not a sign of maturity; waiting for God to reveal the future to us before we take any decisions is a sign of a lack of trust in the Sovereign Lord who plans everything to our good. It is sign that we think it is safer to do nothing…
