Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey

Author:Dave Harvey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Crossway Books
Published: 2010-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

7

Ambition’s Contentment

IF AMBITION DEFINES ME,

IT WILL NEVER FULFILL ME

If church history were a dojo, the English Puritans would all be black belts. Seriously, they had some staggering insights into the Christian life. But when you read them, you have to wonder: did these guys get paid by the word? Long words, long sentences, long paragraphs, long books. Even the abridgments of their books are long.

But in combing through all that Puritan writing, you’ll inevitably stumble on a statement that’s crisp, clear, and short enough to make you think for a long time: “If we have not what we desire, we have more than we deserve.”1 In this brief sentence from his classic book The Art of Divine Contentment, Thomas Watson sketches the portrait of a saint at peace. On its face, contentment seems at odds with ambition, doesn’t it? But for us to be rescued from selfish ambition, the warm colors of godly contentment must be mixed with the bright colors of godly ambition. Let’s see why this is important and what it creates.

The Problem: We Have Not What We Desire

The sunny day hardly matched Walt’s mood. Even though it had happened six months ago, Walt still couldn’t believe Monique was given the job he deserved.

Sure, Monique was qualified, but Walt had always dreamed of occupying that position. He’d prayed for it over the last two years, patiently biding his time until the position opened. Walt was a competitor. He played fair but hard, and he wasn’t used to losing. But he’d lost out. And though he would never say it out loud, it galled him that he lost to a woman. This felt like total failure.

Now Walt felt as if his star was no longer rising in the company. For the first time in his life, he felt like “all the others.” He just knew his boss no longer saw him as a go-to guy—he could feel it in his voice. “He’s lost confidence in me,” Walt would whisper to himself during his hourly self-counseling sessions. “He says I’m still vital to the department, but it just doesn’t feel that way.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was shrinking right before everybody’s eyes.

His wife suggested he was looking at this all wrong. She reminded him of his good health, his loving family, his stock options, and even his Christianity. Then she forced the issue on his not getting the promotion: “Why does this bother you so much?”

It was a great question, but Walt couldn’t come up with an answer.

His confusion led to new feelings of disorientation, as if he were lost or set adrift at sea. Walt increasingly felt the glow of his life dimming, like a smoldering wick in desperate search of a spark.

To use Watson’s words, Walt would have to admit, “I have not what I desire.” He held ambitions for the promotion, worked for it, prayed for it, but didn’t get it. And God wasn’t phoning in to offer any explanations.

Was God out to lunch when Monique got promoted? Was he momentarily diverted by some surprise in the Middle East? Nope.

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