There are some words and phrases that the average Christian simply does not like, words like: Heresy, Darwinian evolution, Happy Holidays, and Ambition. The last of these is what concerns Dave Harvey, author of Rescuing Ambition (Crossway, 2010). Harvey believes that “ambition” has become another bad word in the church, a word that is “dogged by an assumption of sin.” “Ambition” he contends, has become “synonymous with the love of earthly position and honor…vainglory, fame-hunting – radioactive stuff” (212). Harvey believes differently, however. He writes:
I believe God wants ambition back into our understanding of godliness and spiritual health. Sure let’s not fail to evaluate our motives and strive for humility – that’s essential. But let’s not be paralyzed by self-analysis (215).
Harvey is out to renew a Christian appreciation and application of ambition. It’s a bold move, but he’s got the Biblical and practical support to defend it.
The grounds for his book really come from a strong Biblical conviction that humanity is hardwired with ambition. It’s like the desire for sex, or Chick-Fil-A, humanity is innately ambitious. John 12, where we read that men rejected Christ because they “loved the glory that comes from man,” reveals that we are created to be “glory seekers.” So “hard-wired” are we for this pursuit that Harvey says we are glory addicts. He writes:
Glory grabs us. But even more than that, it arouses something in our souls. It stirs us. We experience something totally vicarious, some strange exercise in identification. And make no mistake, it goes deep. It calls to something we value. To do something that matters. To seek something greater than our own puny existence (22).
Ultimately glory is a person, Jesus Christ. And if we truly desire him we will be ambitious, we will pursue passionately that glory. Sadly, however, Harvey must point out the obvious: ambition has been corrupted.
One of the more fascinating aspects of this book is the way in which the author unpacks the gospel story in terms of our ambition. He demonstrates, by his own writing style, that the gospel is relevant for every area of our lives. It’s not just that good news we believe for eternal salvation and then we go on with the rest of our lives, no that gospel message has significance for even something as troubling as our ambition. God created Adam and Eve with perfect ambition, but sin corrupted their ambition and it continues to corrupt ours. Harvey spells it out:
Sin does the same thing to us that it did to Adam and Eve. It distorts the truth of God and undermines our essential dependence on him. It seduces us to crave things that deface God’s holiness and assault his glory. Ultimately, sin moves self to the center of our desires and dreams. Rather than promoting God’s order and glory we become relentless self-promoters. It’s a condition that shrinks the soul (37).
With good exposition he breaks down James 3:13-16 to show us how this selfish ambition is glory-swiping. We claim for ourselves what rightly belongs to God alone. We pursue self-distinction, but we do so at great peril. Because, ultimately, since only God deserves the glory, because he alone is perfect, our corrupted ambition leads to one of two results: (1) We despair because we can’t achieve perfect glory; or (2) we settle for “close enough.” Dave Harvey highlights the severe trouble we are in, however, because of our corrupted ambition.
But whether our ambition sends us into despair or leads us to settle for near-great, there’s something with which we must contend: Our failure to achieve greatness is far greater, and far more dangerous, than we think. You see, the standard of greatness isn’t set by us. It’s set by God. And God doesn’t grade on a curve (46).
The answer to this dilemma then is the gospel, and, by means of that gospel, a converted ambition.
Through a helpful exposition of Romans 3, in what is one of the best parts of the book, Harvey demonstrates how the gospel frees us from the pursuit of self-distinction, the lust of selfish ambition, of “glory swiping.” Christ, through his death, bears the punishment I deserve for trying to swipe God’s glory. Then, through his perfect life Christ credits to me the obedience I lack. Harvey says, “Understanding this magnificent truth will transform how you think about your dreams” (55).
I don’t know about you, but I dream big. I have visions of what my future, my church, my ministry, my family will look like. I have dreams about what I want to accomplish, and none of these dreams are small. The truth is, however, that like Kid Rock’s attempts at country, I am still trying to get people to like me. I still want man’s approval. But what the gospel does for me and for you is free us from the need to use our dreams as simply another tool to take a swipe at God’s glory. Dave Harvey writes it this way:
Apart from God, our quest for greatness is often a search for approval. I want to be applauded and esteemed. I live for praise. I attempt great things because I crave being celebrated. Selfish ambition is often a desperate quest for an earthly “Atta-boy,” a drive to fashion a world that worships me. The gospel brings me explosive news: my search for approval is over. In Christ I already have all the approval I need (56).
There is freedom for me and my dreams, but it is only found in the gospel. This now shapes, then, the future of my ambition.
Harvey spells it out in an interesting way. Because I am not seeking man’s approval, but God’s and because God is more concerned with the inward being than the external form then suddenly the agenda of my ambition changes. “God’s glorious agenda for our ambition, like his glorious gospel, begins not with what we achieve but with who we are” (67). In order to drive this point home, and it is a powerful point, Harvey spells out three ways in which God shapes our ambition. It begins with delays.
Waiting is part of God’s plan; we see it in Scripture with Abraham and Sarah waiting 25 years for a child. We see it with David waiting ten years to be king. We see it with Paul waiting 14 years to preach to the gentiles. So waiting is part of God’s plan for our lives. It is his method to purify our ambitions, help us to gauge what we really desire and what is just a fleeting interest. It cultivates patience in us. It redefines our definition of productivity, so that we are more focused on who we are becoming than we are on what we are accomplishing.
God also develops our ambition. Harvey’s book is full of illustrations from the membership of the church where he pastored. Here he tells the story of David Sacks, who had an all consuming ambition to make an established career and name for himself in the photography business. But Sacks was converted and saw that his pursuit had become an idol. His focus, then, changed so that he is still in photography but he is not making it his end-all of existence. God does this for all of us, to help develop better, more godly ambitions in us in accordance with his agenda.
Lastly, Harvey speaks of ambition denied. Our goals and God’s will aren’t always the same thing, says Harvey. And we must accept that sometimes he develops right goals in us by first killing the wrong ones. Ambition gets denied, but Harvey is quick to point out that when our true agenda is to be shaped by God and not achieve our dreams than we have not lost anything. Romans 8:28, he points out, is true even in these moments. All things work together for our good if we love Jesus.
In lieu of this last point it seems only fitting that Harvey turn to consider Ambition’s Confidence, which is rooted deeply in who God is. He unpacks Hebrews 11:6 for us to point out that ambition can be confident when it has genuine faith in God. He writes:
Godly ambition has reward in mind at all times. When our desire for glory is energized by the Hebrews 11 kind of true faith, bold things tend to happen. We do self-denying things the world could never imagine doing. We resist self-indulgence. We take risks for the sake of the gospel (93).
Now he is quick to point out that this doesn’t mean everything will turn out rosy for us. Despite what some name-it-and-claim-it preachers say, faith does not grant us a perfect earthly, temporal, life (just look at the hair cuts on most of those guys and you’ll know that this isn’t true. Perfection can’t come with a mullet). This important distinction leads him, naturally, then, to consider three crucial aspects of his discussion.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 represent some of the most thoughtful work that Harvey has done on this subject. He begins with the paradoxes of Ambition’s path. I’ll paraphrase them briefly, but you really must read the work to grasp the full impact of each statement. (1) Greatest fulfillment comes in emptying ourselves of personal glory. The way of ambition’s path is to be like Jesus in Philippians 2:5-8. (2) It’s wrong to think first about our own rights. Jesus’ path took him downward, to consider the needs of others over His own wants, and indeed genuinely deserved rights. (3) Make yourself a servant, not the center of attention. This is, of course, how Jesus came, in the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). (4) When it comes to self-evaluation don’t base your judgments on what you see, instead probe your heart and consider your motives. We can always do seemingly, visibly, good things with bad motives. We must evaluate our hearts not simply our actions. (5) True humility motivates us to work harder. Quoting G.K. Chesterton, Harvey writes:
The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether (116-17).
These paradoxes help shape our proper thinking about how to go about pursuing godly ambition. It takes us out of the center of the picture and puts God there. It reminds us, like my mom use to say, that the world does not revolve around us. Rather our ambition’s path is to be about promoting God’s fame and not our own.
The subtitle of chapter 7 powerfully describes a principle that most people simply don’t realize: “If ambition defines me, it will never fulfill me.” The problem for me, and what made reading this book so healthy, is that I am consumed by what I don’t have far too often. Harvey stresses that contentment, however, is dependent upon a proper perspective. He begins by pointing out that we have more than we deserve. The reality is that we are all sinners who deserve only hell and wrath, we receive, as Christians, however, grace and life. That’s far more than we deserve, and if we never get our dreams realized we have nothing to complain about. Ultimately, however, Harvey realizes that the only thing that will truly content us is if we are captured by a better vision than our earthly desires. We must have a desire for Jesus and for his glorification.
Chapter 8 introduces the subject of failure. “Like death, taxes, and really bad haircuts, failure finds us all” (138). This chapter proves to be the most provocative and captivating of them all. Harvey unpacks the Scriptural truth that God is in control of all things, even our failures and that he can and does use them for good purposes if we trust him. The example he uses to illustrate this point is one from church history. He tells the story of David Brainerd, and with a knack for good story-telling draws us in to see the Biblical implications for our lives. Though Brainerd saw his dreams shattered by his own impetuous and sinful response, God was able to reshape and reorient his life so that he became one of the most influential missionaries in the modern era. It was not in Brainerd’s ten year plan, but God used His failures to reshape that plan. “The gospel reminds us that God controls all situations. If God put Pilate in power and worked through his weakness to save the world (John 19:8,11)” then he can certainly use our failures and mistakes too (149). What’s important, then, is for us not to let our failures define us. Harvey adds:
The gospel restores God to the center of our failure analysis…Failure will be the end for us if we remove God from the equation. For David Brainerd, God was very much a part of the equation. For him, another day was dawning (151).
“Remember, we fail because we’re not God,” Harvey writes. It’s an important point, and one that cannot be overstressed. “Whether it’s the result of selfish ambition or the design of God for our good, failure isn’t foreign. Failure is ambition refused (one way or another) for a better plan” (153).
In the last three chapters Harvey wraps his theology of ambition up. It’s all very practical and he writes with a very pastoral heart throughout the work. Chapter 9 points us to consider that our ambition is not for us alone, but it is for others. We are to be ambitious, particularly for the church, as the collective community of God’s people. Chapter 10 reminds us that ambition is risky, and without risk there won’t be any reward from the pursuit. Chapter 11, then, concludes with a willingness to pass ambition on. If we are truly ambitious in the godly way then we won’t cling to our pursuits and our successes as if they are ours. We will pass them on. Here Harvey seems to be less helpful to the average reader. Much of the chapter highlights the specific example of passing on the mantel of his pastoral ministry to a younger man fit to lead the church. Some may find it hard to sense a related application in their life, but the overall principle of passing ambition on seems clear enough. Passing on the clear picture of godly ambition to the next generation is a must, especially if we want to avoid the “murder of ambition” which has happened in the church.
Endorsements are always a funny thing. I usually flip a new book over to see who has signed their named to it and what they think of the book, but most of the time these quips prove silly. I mean how many times can you use the expression “best book on the subject” until you’ve maxed it out? Nonetheless I think I can agree with Ed Stetzer’s endorsement of Rescuing Ambiton: I hope every leader in the church will read this book. We have a strange gap among church leaders, as I see it, today. There are plenty of guys who have ambition, but it is an ambition for their own glory and their own legacy. They’ve built their church and they’ve established their kingdom. They’ve left God, even though they would never say this, out of the equation. On the other hand are the pastors who have no ambition whatsoever. The men who do their weekly routines but have no real plans, no real future forecast for the church they lead and the ministry they oversee. They aren’t planning anything, or reaching for any goals. They aren’t dreaming, and sadly most of them don’t even know it. Harvey really promotes his book best of all when he opens with an attractive proposal:
Why read this book? Read it to make connections between what you want and what you do…between your present opportunities and your future hopes…between your life and God’s glory. These connections rescue us from fruitlessness, pointlessness, purposelessness, and the haunting gray twilight of wasted time and lost opportunity. They remind us that a big God uses small people to steer the course of history – people like you and me (15).
A Biblical theology of ambition is a powerful tool in the hands of Christians, and Dave Harvey gives us that as he rescues ambition from the list of words Christians can’t use. Now if we can just get them to stop worrying about “Happy Holidays” so much.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 