As parents, my wife and I have always been pleased when we see that our children (now adults) have ambition. Ambition was much more likely to get them out of bed in the morning than an alarm clock. Ambition also got them into college and through college so that they have the opportunity to work and have a career. Ambition introduced them to their spouses and now that we have grandchildren, ambition will encourage them to pay attention to the God-given role of being mothers and fathers so that their children grow up with these same opportunities as well.However, too much ambition, or more correctly too much ambition for the wrong things, is a negative influence in our lives and will lead us down the wrong path. Expensive cars, the love of money, sexual conquests and power will become a corrupting influence in our lives and certainly will not please God.
The Apostle Paul had something to say about ambition. In 1st Thessalonians, 4:11 Paul says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands.” Paul is telling us to be “ordinary”, or be hard working and a good citizen. In telling us to be ordinary, Paul isn’t telling us not to strive but rather to live in a way that we earn the respect of those around us and to avoid those lifestyles that would cause people to think that we have more selfish ambitions than to be good neighbor.
It is exactly for the cause of Christ that Paul encourages us to be ambitious for the ordinary. This 4th chapter of Thessalonians is often titled, “Living for God” in many Bibles and Paul’s instructions here are about the continuance of brotherly love and a reminder that we have been taught to “love each other”. Paul tells us that our ambition for the ordinary is "so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." (verse 12)
I love that….be ordinary, mind your own business and be hard working; so that in every way, we have the opportunity to win the right to lead others to the Savior.
So get out there and be ordinary!
