I read an article a few weeks ago. It asks the question: Can you be a “great man” or “great woman” without being a butt-hole? Or is being a jerk a necessary quality to achieve greatness?
The saying goes: “if I say yes to this, it means I say no to that.”
To accomplish something significant means you will sacrifice many things. More often than not that’s health, happiness and the relationships closest to you (i.e. spouse, family, friends).
It got me thinking.
What do Christians sacrifice to do something great for God?
Name a project, idea, ministry, initiative, etc. you want to do for God. Is it negatively impacting your life? Is it hindering your personal time with Jesus?
Is it worth it?
Is it worth being stressed all the time? Is it worth not being there for your spouse/family? Is it worth being depressed and having no energy?
Ecclesiastes 4:6 (NIV)
6 Better one handful with tranquility
than two handfuls with toil…
The focus of our ambition and desire should not be on our influence or accomplishment but on having a deep, meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
I’m beginning to define greatness as not how much you do or how high you build for God, but how much you know the Father and he knows you.
6 replies on “The Cost of Christian Ambition”
Great word. Over-extension is a killer and burn-out is quick on the heels of those that do. I find myself battling this constantly.
I could see both you and I struggling with the same thing. World wide web domination for Jesus. ;)
This is really Part 1 of 2. The second part will touch more closely to my heart and what God has been teaching me about striving for greatness/influence.
I don’t know buddy. I think you are wrong in want you are implying here. The religion A mentality is not going to help anybody and only sets up a passive Christianity. Being a Christian does not mean you are due happiness. I would argue that in this world it should bring great discomfort and pain because of what the world is doing. This world is so full of horrors it is kind of hard to live life as normal. We are privileged to live in the empire but what about those that don’t. Should we worry about them? Should we empathise with them? It is not God responsibility to fix the problems caused my our sin, it is ours. People can only know Christianity by how we physically express it and a Religion A type of passive Christianity doesn’t express anything. Worse we could slip into a religion A type of acceptance Christianity where we accept that this is how the world is a one day God will fix it so nothing is a problem and it is ok to pursue the unchristian American dream and push imperialism and white burdenism on others and call it ” mission work”. Good Christianity hurts. It forces us to push on a world that hates us and is so much bigger then us. Good Christianity is religion B type of active social justice Christianity and I will except nothing less. Not sure what you are trying to get at with this blog. Something about how our Christian project shouldn’t come between our personal time with Jesus. If you are a Christian nothing can come between that personal time with Jesus because he is always with us. He is with me even now as I write this. He is in everything I do. I don’t get what you are implying and maybe it is connected to what somebody else said but it is not possible to separate the Christian from Christ once the relationship has been established, even if the person walks away from God. Who wants to be a jerk? Me.
Vito! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Trying to see where you’re coming from . . . what do you think I’m implying with this post?
Honestly, I could have conveyed the wrong thought. From your comment and some others, I believe I may have.
As I mentioned to Trevor, this is Part 1 of 2.
I think I tried too hard to extract what God is doing in my personal life into a generalized post. I’ll make my next post more personal. Give people a glimpse of what God is tweaking in my life.
Hopefully that brings clarity to my overall thought.
I really enjoyed this post.Having offered to serve @ church before, and being put in the wrong place can really bring stress in your life.Even if it is fulfilling, sometimes it’s just not right.
The article just brought tears to my eyes.Who wants to be a jerk? It is just so important to stay strong in The Word.Constantly seeking God makes a life worth living,and keeps us happy.
“Constantly seeking God makess life worth living and keeps us happy.”
Right on the money!