Identity & Worth
I want to be known: recognised, admired, somebody people have heard of. Is that ambition wrong, or is it just human?
“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.”
This is a short private word to Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, who had given his career to a prophet nobody wanted to hear and was worn out and disappointed by it. God does not shame him for wanting more, but he does tell him the truth about the moment: a nation was collapsing, and greatness for himself was the wrong thing to be chasing in it. The tone is tender correction, not contempt for ambition.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John the Baptist says this as his own crowds thin out and drift toward Jesus, a development his disciples report to him in the tone of bad news. He had every reason to compete. His answer treats his shrinking profile as the design rather than the failure, because he knew whose wedding he was attending. Very few people manage to say a sentence like that without bitterness.
A path forward
Ask what you actually want from being known: security, love, proof that you matter. Name it, because fame is usually a substitute for something more specific.
Do one genuinely good thing this week that nobody will ever find out about, and resist every opportunity to mention it.
Pray about your ambition rather than around it. God can be told plainly that you want to be significant.
Closing verse
“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
- Luke 10:20
Coming Soon
Want to ask your own question?
Revealed is building a feature that lets you ask anything and receive a Bible-rooted response drawn from both Testaments. Join the waitlist to be first to know when it launches.