Godly Ambition: Maximize Your Gifts for ChristНамуна

HOLY HUSTLE

It’s trendy nowadays to criticize “hustle culture,” and I get it. But sometimes we settle for less than our God-given potential simply because we want to play it safe. Godly ambition can push us to the limit—not because we’re preoccupied but because we’re faithful.

In other words, at times, ambition is exactly what’s needed to honor God and love your neighbor. In some seasons the so-called work-life bal­ance, though a noble goal, needs to be temporarily set aside. Let me give you an example.

In Proverbs, Solomon gives this advice:

My son…if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,

you have been trapped by what you said,

ensnared by the words of your mouth.

So do this, my son, to free yourself,

since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:

Go—to the point of exhaustion—

and give your neighbor no rest!

Allow no sleep to your eyes,

no slumber to your eyelids.

Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (6:1–5 NIV)

Solomon describes someone who is under the crushing weight of debt. His advice is to make it right as quickly as possible: Better to struggle now and be free than to live perpetually in anxiety. Just as a gazelle flees a lion with life-or-death urgency, sometimes our survival—financial and otherwise—requires intense focus.

What is worth that kind of focus? Paul expresses his willingness to expend all his energy for the gospel: “Even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you” (Philippians 2:17 ESV). Similarly, he writes to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV).

Within the Christian life are seasons of intensity for the sake of others. People will tell you to chill, to slow down, to make less noise. Don’t listen to them. Keep running.

Lord, pour out favor on the work of my hands. Where I lack ambition or am tempted to settle into apathy, stir me to action. Light a fire in my heart to maximize every opportunity, gift, and task for your glory and the good of the world. Amen.