Work & Vocation
Since coming to faith I have lost my drive at work, and I am not sure that is a good thing. How do I hold faith and ambition together?
“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.”
These words go to Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, who was worn out and disappointed in the middle of a national collapse. God does not tell him ambition is evil. He asks what Baruch is seeking great things for, at a moment when the whole country is being dismantled, and then promises to preserve his life. It is about proportion, not a ban on effort.
“Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;”
Paul lists this among practical instructions for a mixed church in the imperial capital. He assumes Christians will be energetic rather than passive, and he ties that energy directly to serving the Lord rather than setting the two against each other. The New Testament never treats slackness as humility. It relocates the fuel: the same drive, pointed differently.
A path forward
Write down what you are actually working towards now that money and status alone do not motivate you. Lost ambition is often just a goal that was never replaced.
Take on one piece of work this quarter that genuinely stretches you, and pray about it as something offered rather than something owed.
Talk with a Christian further along in your field about how they handle ambition. Most have wrestled with exactly this and almost none are ever asked about it.
Closing verse
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”
- Proverbs 22:29
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