Godly Ambition

Godly Ambition

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Is Ambition Bad or Good?

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

I had just finished speaking at a young adults ministry, when a young man approached me. He was sharply dressed, was earnest, and looked perplexed.

He explained he was a visual artist. Curious, I took a moment to check out his work online—it was genuinely impressive.

“This is great stuff. I definitely think you have something special here. Are you pursuing art full-time?”

“No, I’m working twenty hours a week. Other than that, just kicking it.”

I took a beat. “Gotcha. Well, do you want to pursue your art full-time?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t want to become too successful, ya know?”

As I looked at this young man, taking his first steps as a gifted artist, I understood the tension he felt. As a “Christian influencer” (a title I’m not particularly fond of, by the way), I’ve thought a lot about how to wield influence as a follower of Jesus. Most days, at least one stranger recognizes me from my YouTube channel. That might sound exciting—and to be sure there are rewarding moments—but it’s also dangerous. If I’m honest, there’s a broken part of me that wants recognition to feel worthwhile. Validation is a drug. One hit is never enough, and before long, you need more and more to feel whole.

Perhaps you wonder something like this:

Is it wrong to want success?

How do I find my calling in life?

How do I start or run a business with integrity?

How do I keep success from corrupting me?

How do I make the most out of my life and honor God?

If you’ve wrestled with any of these questions, this book is for you. In the church, ambition sometimes feels like a dirty word. We’re ashamed to admit we want things—that we’re driven to create, build, and achieve. In some circles, it’s fashionable to depend on God but “worldly” to hustle.

That said, this young man’s response saddened me. He was full of potential but held back, fearing that success would corrupt his character. It’s the equivalent of avoiding the gym because you don’t want to get too jacked. Instead, why not hit the gym and see what happens? Chances are, you’ll live a happier and healthier life.

The same principle applies to your gifts: Why not try to maximize your impact? While it’s noble to prioritize character, before you worry about the trappings of success, let’s get financially stable. Let’s build a network of support and collaboration. Let’s start a movement. Let’s make some noise about what you’re up to.

If you stop before you start, in this volatile economy, with all the distractions around you, you’ve already lost. Too much ambition can be a problem, but just as often I see people with no ambition. Apathy is a silent dream killer, and it’s taking way too many people down.

I’m here with good news: There is a way to pursue excellence—even success—without losing your soul. There is a way to dedicate your drive to God. To be sure, chasing ambition like Jesus does looks very different from chasing success like the world does. You will have to unlearn some things culture has hammered into you.

In fact, you’ve likely heard two lies about ambition, and they’re possibly influencing you in negative ways—holding you back from the type of ambition God wants for you. Let’s look at these lies now.

Lie 1: All Ambition Is Evil

In the church, many view ambition as a vice more than a virtue. It’s tacky, like that Christmas sweater you pull out once a year. It fits awkwardly and makes you feel out of place. Some of my friends who are lead pastors express mixed feelings about ambition. On one hand, they deeply desire for their congregation members to be ambitious in the sense of striving toward the fullness of what God has for them—pursuing godly lives and maximizing their God-given potential. However, they also caution against the darker side of ambition, which can emerge even within church walls. This manifests when individuals start seeking additional authority and power prematurely, often without demonstrating the humility to submit to church leadership. The tension of godly versus prideful ambition illustrates why this can be such a polarizing topic in a church setting; it has the potential to either foster growth and spiritual maturity or lead to discord and power struggles.

Living in a culture that flippantly uses the word blessing to celebrate material success makes this topic even more complicated, as if God were a genie who exists only to grant our wishes. I don’t want to spend my life taking from my Father’s hand while missing his heart.

We plaster over our apathy with platitudes about staying humble. In reality, though, we’re playing it safe. Or settling for less than our God-given potential.

Cue the stereotypical thirty-year-old living in his grandmother’s basement. Or the person who stays in a dead-end job for decades because she’s too comfortable where she is and too afraid to take a new risk. God doesn’t call us to sail ahead recklessly, but he often calls us out of the boat. Some of us are a little too comfy sitting at the oars, drifting aimlessly.

Yet when we look at Jesus’s teachings, we see that he doesn’t rebuke our desire for greatness. He doesn’t dismiss ambition or tell his disciples to settle down and chill. If anything, he stirs up more ambition in their hearts. He radically redefines what it means to be great.

More on that in a moment, but first, let’s expose another aspect of this first lie: Some say ambition is narcissistic. A few years ago, an up-and-coming pastor started making waves online. In a sermon clip that went viral, he declared that all ambition is evil—even calling it “demonic.” He referenced James 3:14, which states, “If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” As I watched, the irony was impossible to ignore: a sharply dressed pastor, standing on a professionally lit stage with top-notch audio quality, preaching against ambition. Really? Why else would he pay his team to select, edit, and post that sermon clip if not to gain attention and notoriety? It illustrates how a person can effortlessly slander ambition without realizing that we all have desires—many of them good—that we’re driven to fulfill. Instead of denying it with false piety, let’s be real about it.

In this pastor’s defense, his core message wasn’t entirely off the mark. He was trying to highlight how people often make life choices—such as dating, relocating to a new city, and so on—without consulting God, only to ask for his blessings afterward. The essence of his message was good. However, there’s a huge difference between examining the motives of your ambition and demonizing all ambition. If you look more closely at that passage in James, it’s selfish ambition he calls out. That’s where the problem is.