"What do you want to be when you grow up?" we are often asked when we are younger. And depending on the age, and audience, we want to be anything from a fireman to a doctor or lawyer. It pleases our family to hear we will become a doctor-free medical they joke, but don't realize you have to get sick to benefit from it. For like mercy, you have to screw up to get it. Or becoming a lawyer, and we all see our children as Perry Mason, but don't realize all the hours put into one case just for the short time before the judge. Sounds more like life.
And as we get older, we change direction. Based on skills, or desires, we can change daily. I wanted to work in the motorcycle industry until I did, and all the guys riding through on nice days while I had to work helped me change my mind. I know many who made the military a career, but had no idea they would have to go into battle. I had a friend in college who would base his major on what girls were in his classes, as far as I know he never graduated. But he did get an education!
Perhaps the key words here are "growing up." Some people are born old, with such a sense of responsibility they never enjoy life. I used to feel sorry for them, but now I am thankful for them, so I don't have to be. Doctors have a short life expectancy. And the lawyers I know are usually on the verge of burn out. For it is true, the more money I ever made, more than my education should have merited, the more it exacted from me-physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But for all the above desires of men, and women, the common bond is desire-ambition. We wanted to be something. To achieve a goal. We wanted to show the world. When we really should be showing God. And I have met some who are always on that path, but never getting there. And others who have made it in their field, and never have time to enjoy it. My friend Ted in New Mexico was part of a very rich family, but yet had no privacy. When we went out, people would always have a deal for him, and he had no privacy. And maybe very few friends, because they all had a angle to work him for. I met a man at the Long Beach Motorcycle Show back when it was in Anaheim. He was sitting at a kiosk, and we talked for awhile. Motorcycles, and other things. I was starting to leave and he asked, "did I want a signed poster?" "Of who," I asked. "Me," he laughed. His name was Eddie Lawson, World Champ. But until that time, he was just a guy who shared bikes and other common denominators. I never did get a poster, I prefer to remember him as I had met him.
Ambition-don't let it come between you and God. I watch as businessman choose a career over their families. If they put business over family, how can they be trusted with real things of value-or values? And as men choose work over spouses, although to be fair, there are other reasons men work late-they don't want to come home, gifts are a poor substitute when they could be giving themselves. But true to their hearts, I have also watched men deny the offer of a promotion to stay with his family. Where his kids are worth more than the things he could buy them if he had a larger income. Of being there for his wife, rather than sending her candy, he was there to share it with her.
Don't let ambition get between you and God. True success is measured through His eyes, not yours. Ask yourself, what is the motive for your career? Has God given you a gift, or are you consumed with making it in the world? Are you measuring success on monetary gain-someone will always make more. On career goals-the goals will change. Or are you wanting to please God, and make Him the success in your life? Tough questions, but I have always found it best to be where God wants me to be. It is lonely out there without Him, and no amount of time away from Him will be satisfied with fame or fortune. Live within your means, and within the desires that He has given you. If a doctor, doctor for the Lord. A lawyer, serve in truth. A waitress, serve as unto the Lord. But as a parent or spouse, commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be well established.
For just like meeting Eddie, it is more important that I have committed my life to God, than to just getting a signed poster. I met Eddie, but don't know him. Only about him. Don't be able to say the same about Jesus.
I may never grow up-not my ambition. But I do desire to grow in Jesus. What do you do for a living? Me-I'm a Christian. Great benefits-let me tell you about the retirement program! And Joe and Mary's kid, just a carpenter?
love with compassion,
Mike
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