By Emily Fox · Editor-in-Chief
When God isn’t the center of your world, what is? The answer to that question depends on the individual. For some, it’s having the most impressive LinkedIn page and climbing the corporate ladder. For others, it’s having the most degrees hanging on the wall of their office or the most bylines in a variety of publications and academic journals covering a wide range of subjects, proving them to be the most qualified expert in every sense. Some strive to be the most well-known person in the room, beloved by thousands of Instagram followers eagerly commenting words of gushing praise for their beauty, exotic travels and aesthetic lifestyle content.
The truth is that all these motivations can be traced back to a single commonality. What really makes our world “tick” is ambition. The desire to achieve has trickled into every aspect of society, even the parts we wouldn’t expect. It’s been ingrained into the minds of our children. Our schools train teenagers to believe that unless they get perfect grades, are the best athlete in the conference and join as many extracurriculars in as many disciplines as possible, they won’t get into a good college. It doesn’t end there. After college, they’ll face even more competition in the workforce to be the most elite, cut-throat professional. If they can’t reach that level, they’ve failed. Or at least that’s what I was told when I was 16.
Christians have an even more complicated relationship with ambition. There’s a negative association with the concept of advancement. After all, the Bible warns us not to let ambition drive us and instead calls us to be humble and act as servants. This becomes confusing when professors and mentors encourage us to bulk up our resumes, apply for big internships, connect with impressive alumni, graduate Summa Cum Laude and get a master’s degree. We admire figures of Grove City’s history like Isaac Ketler, David Rathburn and Paul McNulty, who were by no means unsuccessful in their careers or even economically.
So how can we respond to ambition humbly while pursuing our calling to the greatest of our ability? What do we do when taking steps towards our God-given vocation involves submitting to certain constructs that are founded on ambition?
There’s another word that goes with ambition in the verses that caution us against it. That is the word “selfish.” Philippians 2:3, Galatians 5:20 and James 3:14-16 urge us to do nothing out of “selfish ambition.” Ambition itself is not evil; it is how we channel it that makes it dangerous. I read an essay by James Davidson Hunter in a fiver I signed up for this semester. His reflections on being faithful where God has put us are insightful in helping us navigate our relationship with ambition. He says, “… the call to faithful presence implies a certain modesty that gives priority to substance over style … it would encourage ambition, but the instrumentalities of ambition are always subservient to the requirements of humility and charity.”
Hunter’s statement invites us to ask ourselves: for what are we ambitious? Is it to make a name for ourselves, or is it to reflect Christ? In my efforts to build a career, am I attempting to advance to a higher position to make more money and have more power, or am I trying to become a leader who my coworkers can rely on and who they know sees them as individuals rather than human capital? Returning to the example of our campus’s leaders, Ketler, Rathburn and McNulty shared the common goal of using the success and resources that God had given them to build His kingdom. In their positions, they provided an education to students that taught them to use the talents God gave them to be image bearers as they follow the path He set before them.
It is possible to be a Christian and have a healthy relationship with ambition. We are called to bring our best efforts to God through our work, and we should, even in a culture of competition. We must be vigilant in our self-evaluation; we must consider what we are ambitious about. We must be intentional about pursuing our ambitions from a position of humility rather than one of selfish gain.
