Quiet Time: Ambition

Ambition

and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you - 1 Thessalonians 4:11

am·bi·tion: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.

Recently I watched the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and a conversation between the main character, Walter Mitty and the world traveling adventure photographer, Sean O’Connell,  caught my attention. They sat quietly on the side of a windswept mountain in an attempt to photograph the elusive snow leopard:

Sean O'Connell: They call the snow leopard the ghost cat. Never let’s itself be seen.
Walter Mitty: Ghost cat.
Sean O'Connell: Beautiful things don't ask for attention.

I asked our small group bible study, “How many of us want a quiet life?” Every hand went up. Of course the fact that we all want it means that none of us have it. 

Perhaps it's because we’re all earnestly desiring the wrong things.

What if our most ambitious goal read something like this:

“I want to be the most quiet, hard-working, and peaceful person this planet has ever known”

Obviously, this goal won’t bring much glory or notoriety, but it will show the beauty of Christ in us.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  (2 Cor. 4:7)

“Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” 

May-be that’s what makes them so beautiful.