A Man’s Ambition and his relationship with God are two entirely different things.
Readership: All
Theme: Consolidating Masculinity
Length: 500 words
Reading Time: 2 minutes
In its positive expression, Ambition is a restlessness in men that pushes them to strive for more. It drives them to do better, and to be better. This is a good quality of Men that is to be respected. If a man’s natural ambition is linked to his purpose and mission, then he is blessed.
In its negative expression, Ambition is a self-serving desire for achievement, conquest, or distinction, for material gain, power, honor, fame, wealth, and püssy galore. In this case, Ambition is the black hand of conceit and vainglorious pride.
The first type of Ambition lends to the building of civilization; the second, its destruction. The first type lends to redemption and salvation; the second, hell and perdition.
The restlessness of the first type is not equivalent to discontentedness, but rather a desire for continual improvement and the freshness of creative development. Contentment comes when that creative change has been realized in a well-functioning form.
This is why it is written,
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
I Timothy 6:6 (ESV)
Thus, it is possible to be ambitious for goodness and the things of God. However, if this Ambition is strongly motivated by a desire for ego-satisfaction, self-satisfaction, or to gratify one’s own pleasures, rather than on God’s purposes and His glory, then that is putting the cart before the horse. This will only lead to frustration. If it is tainted with conceit or self-righteousness, which is legalism / puritanism, it is in vain and will be met with failure and shame.
The key is in having an attitude of Humility and of trusting and serving God, combined with the proper management of desire, and the putting away of one’s own fears and self-centered interests. This is the stance many cannot (or will not) take, and it is the point where many fail.
One of the most insidious forms of self-deception is when one cloaks his desire in something holy, believes it is of God, and therefore neglects to do the necessary introspection. When one dresses up his desire in holiness in order to deceive others to believe it is of God, then this is essentially taking God’s name in vain.
Although contentment might be found through accruing the things of this world and thereby becoming self-sufficient, true everlasting contentment is linked with Godliness with Godliness coming first.
Ambition is usually seen as an attractive trait. Men can usually discern whether a man is upright or else bent around his own interests, however, they’ll seldom think about this. Women, OTOH, are usually rather ignorant about which type of Ambition a man has. Some Wimmin are intentionally ignorant of this, often to her downfall. Both Men and Women would better themselves by being more aware of the nature of this trait in others and in themselves.
Related
- Nautilus: Why Joel Osteen, “The Smiling Preacher,” Is So Darn Appealing (2017/2/15)
- Christianity Today: Billy Graham and Johnny Cash: An Unlikely Friendship (2018/2/22)
- Σ Frame: Elements of Spiritual Maturity (2021/9/15)
Σ Frame 
To be Christian. To be born again is to participate in the Heroism of God. All Glory ultimately belongs to God. Hence Proactivity is imitation of God. And why idleness isn’t blessed. Partaking of God’s character is to partake of his Heroism and his Life of Action. The Golden Path of the Martyr of being Great Spiritual Warriors.
And he alone will be Exalted. Much of the Psalms sings the praises of God and his wonderous deeds. As a Minstrel sings of the exploits of a Great Hero.
When God moved Moses declared:
Like that scene from the Movie Conan:
God is concerned with his Name and his own Glory as we often read in the Bible. His Honor is very important to Him which is why He didn’t exterminate the Israelites with whom he made a Covenant with. Why God chooses to have mercy on the sinner is for the sake of his Honor:
The effectiveness of Prayer therefore must involve God in situations that uphold his Honor and Great Name. If God is Glorified when answering your Prayer. God is far more likely to Answer. Would God be genuinely a Great Hero when he answers or not?
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Are they, really? Because it looks to me like they know exactly what kind of ambition a man has, and they prefer the destructive kind.
For example, in Dave Ramsey’s study on over 10,000 millionaires, his team found that the professions most likely to become millionaires are engineers and accountants, and the most likely path to wealth is staying out of debt, paying off your house early, and investing regularly in your 401K.
Most women hear that and think, “BOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG!”
That’s just the material, practical side of things, I think it applies to other facets of life as well.
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@ Oscar
Well, the long standing saying about this is that many “women don’t want to have 1 million dollars, they want to spend 1 million dollars.” Same with some men too.
Having 1 million only gives you 40k per year via the 4% rule. Solid money to live off of in perpetuity for LCOL and MCOL areas, but not the lavish lifestyle that many of the women are looking for.
Hence, why the 666 — 6 figs, 6 ft, 6 pack (or 6 inches) is sought after. 6 figs generally provides a bigger lifestyle and you can still save some supposedly.
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Not if she spends it all.
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Oscar,
Hmm… You’re right, but I still think women think about this even less than men do (which is not much).
It’s a little more nuanced than what you have described. Women are drawn to LAMPS men — men who offer them little in the spiritual arena, other than a short-lived inspiration and humility (or longer-lived, if they’re alpha widowed). In this sense, women are drawn to men with the destructive type of ambition, since LAMPS men are usually of the ambitious sort.
But I don’t think women in general are attracted to destructive ambition in and of itself (but I’m sure that there are some who are). What they are attracted to is the UC lifestyle, status, Tingles, etc. of being with an ambitious LAMPS man, and then Tingles lead them to choose men with the negative type of ambition, as I described in the last paragraph.
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Well, nuance isn’t my strong suit, so….
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Right at 29 the 401k guys start looking good. Which is fine as long as these guys know they can do better and now it’s their time to wait and do the picking.
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