March 27, Holy Week Wednesday ~ Giving Up Selfish Ambition

Giving Up Selfish Ambition

• Philippians 3:4-11

• Genesis 11:1-9

• Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

On this Wednesday of Holy Week, we are being asked to relinquish selfish ambition. We have no better example of how or why to do this than Jesus Christ himself. By this time in Jesus’ life, his ministry was flourishing. He had name and face recognition in his surrounding area. People were talking about him and flocking to be in his presence. They saw his ability to perform miracles and brought people to him who were hurting, often outcast by society for the very thing that was causing their pain. Jesus could have had it “all”: power, fame, and maybe even fortune (read Matthew 4:1-11) Was that to be the culmination of his life on earth? His Father had a much clearer picture of the “all” that Jesus’ life was worth. Eternal salvation.

Jesus shows us that our blessings are beyond our comprehension when we lay aside our selfish ambitions and work hard to walk the path God plans for us. The world tells us that we can do anything we set our minds to, but that is the problem: our minds. That approach relies on our limited human capacities. If we set our minds on what God has planned for us (knowing that we sometimes don’t know what that may be), and let go of our plans, then we are in for far more blessings than we can begin to hold.

I have first-hand experience with what happens when you let go of a personal lifelong dream (my ambition) and instead step onto a path of faith and trust. In the summer of 2009, I was accepted into Perkins Seminary to become a deacon in the United Methodist Church. It meant that I would have to relocate my family and my job to the Dallas area, but my husband was very supportive and even excited about it. I had a promising job interview at a Dallas church, and the housing market was good. All we had to do was tell our two high school-age boys that they would have to move again, even though we had just moved two years prior. The weekend we were going to talk to them about all of this, my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and was given only nine months to live. All of our (my) plans came to a screeching halt. It was clear that I had to relinquish my ambition of becoming a deacon and walk a path of love and support for my husband and boys.

Just before he passed, my husband made me promise to find a way to go to seminary. He was greatly distressed that his cancer caused such a derailment in our lives, but that is the kind of man he was. He did not want me to give up on my dream even though he could no longer be a part of it. I did not see how it would be possible, but God did. Somehow, I was given an amazing scholarship (to a different seminary, which I could have never afforded) by someone I did not know. An equally amazing friend (who also had a calling to continue her Hebraic studies) journeyed alongside me for my seminary journey. I would have never even thought to ask for those things. God’s idea was so much better than mine; even though it included great grief, there was also abundant joy and blessing. My cup is still running over!

Take a look at Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

That is a great formula for giving up self-ambition and claiming all that God has prepared for you.