52 Sermon Illustrations on Ambition

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Glenn H. Curtiss, by his successful and spectacular flight of 150 miles from Albany to this city (May 29, 1910), has jumped into the first rank of aviators.

Curtiss began life as soon as he was of a workable age as a newsboy. He is still remembered as a lad always ambitious in sport, particularly if there were any mechanical contrivances to be worked out that might add to his triumph. His ambition was to “arrive” in anything he undertook, and to do this he was not content to accept the suggestions of others, but sought to work out his own original ideas.

When about ten or eleven years old he was very much perturbed over the fact that one of his chums owned a hand-sled that always coasts down-hill faster than his own. Curtiss set to work to construct a sled that would outdistance his rival’s, and after weeks of quiet work had the satisfaction of leaving his rival far behind.

From sleds he turned his attention to bicycles.

“Why not attach a gasoline engine to it?” he asked one day, and immediately he went to work, using the model of an old gasoline engine to work on, and was soon able to amaze his neighbors by chugging through the country on his hand-made machine. The fever of the motorcycle was right on him, and that early success led him to establish a bicycle shop which soon grew from a mere repair shop to a plant for the manufacture of motor-cycles, and the success of the improved Curtiss motor was what gave him his first real fame.

In 1907 he took one of his machines to Ormond, Fla. It was built solely for speed, for it was Curtiss’ aim to go faster than any one else. The judges, greatly to the disappointment of the inventor, pronounced it a freak and not eligible, with the orthodox machines. It was a big disappointment, but Curtiss announced that he would make an exhibition mile trial, and, to the amazement of the experts, he covered the distance in the remarkable time of 0:26 2/5, the fastest mile that had ever been traveled by a man.

From making motors for bicycles it was an easy step to try the construction of light gasoline motors for flying purposes. Captain Thomas S. Baldwin was the first to see the possibilities of the Curtiss motor for balloon purposes, and at his suggestion Curtiss built one for Baldwin’s dirigible airship. This was successful, and others were built.

Then followed the success of the Wright brothers with heavier-than-air machines and the craze for the heavier-than-air type abroad. Curtiss’ little shop at Hammondsport became the headquarters for the aeronautical students of this country and aerial flight received its first big impetus, next to that given by the Wrights when Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, in November, 1907, organized his Aeronautic Experiment Association, and Curtiss was one of its six members.

Type A personalities are ambitious, aggressive; Type B's are easygoing, non-competitive, relaxed. "Lots of Type A's think of Type B's as slovenly failures." Application to spirituality.

Spiritual vibrancy is not something you do; it is something you are. Vibrancy is based on how we live, not simply on acts we perform every morning.

Spiritual checklist:

1. My time with God.

2. My ministry performance.

3. My marriage.

4. My besetting sins.

Contrast of different approaches to ambition. Illustrations from Carnegie, Trotman, Colson.

(1) Ambition versus laziness.

(2) The dark side of ambition.

(3) Walking the tightrope.

(4) Taming the beast for service.

(5) Tying ambition to submission.

Ben Patterson writes in “The Grand Essentials”:

“I have a theory about old age... I believe that when life has whittled us down, when joints have failed and skin has wrinkled and capillaries have clogged and hardened, what is left of us will be what we were all along, in our essence.

“Exhibit A is a distant uncle... All his life he did nothing but find new ways to get rich... He spent his senescence very comfortably, drooling and babbling constantly about the money he had made... When life whittled him down to his essence, all there was left was raw greed. That is what he had cultivated in a thousand little ways over a lifetime.

“Exhibit B is my wife’s grandmother... When she died in her mid eighties, she had already been senile for several years. What did this lady talk about? The best example I can think of was when we asked her to pray before dinner. She would reach out and hold the hands of those sitting beside her, a broad, beatific smile would spread across her face, her dim eyes would fill with tears as she looked up to heaven, and her chin would quaver as she poured out her love to Jesus. That was Edna in a nutshell. She loved Jesus and she loved people. She couldn’t remember our names, but she couldn’t keep her hands from patting us lovingly whenever we got near her.

“When life whittled her down to her essence, all there was left was love: Love for God and love for people.”

The great Orthodox preacher John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), although an unmarried priest, gave great advice for married couples:

We should love our wives not so much for their sake, as for Christ's sake.

What if you devote the day to your work and your friends, and the evening to your wife; but she is still not satisfied, but is jealous for more of your time? Don't be annoyed by her complaints; she loves you, she is not behaving absurdly - her complaints come from her fervent affection for you.

A wife should never nag her husband: "You lazy coward, you have no ambition! Look at our relatives and neighbors; they have plenty of money. Their wives have far more than I do." Let no wife say any such thing. "But why should she endure poverty?" some will ask. If she is poor, let her console herself by thinking of those who are much poorer still. If she really loved her husband, she would never speak to him like that, but would value having him close to her more than all the gold in the world. Her husband must never exercise his authority by insulting and abusing her. Instead, he should show true nobility of spirit, and patiently remind her that in the wisdom of heaven, poverty is no evil. Then she will stop complaining.

Remove from you lives shameful, immodest, and Satanic music, and don't associate with people who enjoy such profligate entertainment.

It never profits anyone to talk too much. Whenever you give your wife advice, always begin by telling her how much you love her. Nothing will persuade her so well to admit the wisdom of your words as her assurance that you are speaking to her with sincere affection.

Show her that you value her company, and prefer being at home to being out. Esteem her in the presence of your friends and children. Praise and show admiration for her good acts; and if she ever does anything foolish, advise her patiently.

Pray together at home and go to church; when you come back home, let each ask the other the meaning of the [Scripture] readings and prayers.

Finally, never call her by her name alone, but with terms of endearment, honor, and love. If you honor her, she won't need honor from others; she won't desire praise from others if she enjoys the praise that comes from you. Prefer her before all others, both for her beauty and her discernment, and praise her.

What sort of person do you think the children of such parents will be? Will they not eventually be the recipients of countless blessings as well? For generally the children acquire the character of their parents, are formed in the mold of their parent's love, talk in the same fashion, and work for the same ends. If we order our lives in this way and diligently study the Scriptures, we will find lessons to guide us in everything we need!

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

-- Henry Ward Beecher

“Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought.”

-- Henri Bergson

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”

-- William Blake

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.”

-- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), politician, B&P 4/18/03

“He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.”

-- Lord Byron

“Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

-- Thomas Carlyle

“The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.”

-- Herbert N. Casson

“Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.”

-- Miguel de Cervantes

“Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.”

-- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”

-- Gilbert K. Chesterton

“When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.”

-- Cicero

“The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.”

-- Cicero

“A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he’s not a man of action. You must act as you breathe.”

-- Georges Clemenceau

“When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.”

-- Georges Clemenceau

“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.”

-- Joseph Conrad

“A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.”

-- Alistair Cooke, writer, QFTM 4/26/03

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

-- Benjamin Disraeli

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.”

-- George Eliot

“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Hitch your wagon to a star.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.”

-- Thomas Dunn English

“It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.”

-- Anatole France

“The best way out is always through.”

-- Robert Frost

“Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

“Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.”

-- Giuseppe Garibaldi

“Mark this well, you proud men of action! you are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought.”

-- Heinrich Heine

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.”

-- Horace

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”

-- Elbert Hubbard

“Some folks can look so busy doing nothin’ that they seem indispensable.”

-- Kin Hubbard

“Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.”

-- David Hume

“We grow small trying to be great.”

-- E. Stanley Jones

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

-- Robert F. Kennedy

“Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.”

-- William Lilly

“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”

-- John Locke

“Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We have not wings we cannot soar; but, we have feet to scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time.”

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, QFTM 4/26/03

“Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

-- Niccolò Machiavelli

“Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.”

-- Peter Marshall

“You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.”

-- John N. Mitchell

“Ambition is not a vice of little people.”

-- Michel de Montaigne

“A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.”

-- George Jean Nathan

“Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.”

-- Jawaharlal Nehru

“Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.”

-- Thomas Otway

“The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune.”

-- William Penn

“Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.”

-- Adam Clayton Powell, congressman, QFTM 4/26/03

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”

-- Pat Riley, basketball coach

“Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the

words - ‘I tried.’ That’s what this game of life is all about. Trying. There’s the tryers, the criers, and the liars.”

-- Mickey Rooney, entertainer, QFTM 10/25/03

“We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst knows that if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

“It is the constant fault and inseparable evil quality of ambition, that it never looks behind it.”

-- Seneca

“Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.”

-- William Shakespeare

“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

-- William Shakespeare

“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

-- William Shakespeare

“To be ambitious of true honor and of the real glory and perfection of our nature is the very principle and incentive of virtue; but to be ambitious of titles, place, ceremonial respects, and civil pageantry, is as vain and little as the things are which we court.”

-- Philip Sidney

“There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves.”

-- Arthur P. Stanley

“Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices: so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.”

-- Jonathan Swift

“If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest.”

-- Publilius Syrus

“Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.”

-- Daniel Webster

“Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.”

-- Alfred North Whitehead

“Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.”

-- William Wordsworth

“Too low they build who build below the skies.”

-- Edward Young

“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”

-- Booker T. Washington

“Ambition is the last refuge of failure.”

-- Oscar Wilde

1. Once there was a boy

who sang in the church choir and thought he would be a

priest. 2. Later he gave this up and though he would be an artist. 3.

Failed

entrance exams in art school, started hating Christianity. . . avoided

steady

work. . . he shoveled snow, labored on construction projects, carried

suitcases at the train depot. . . looked like destined to be a failure

in

life. 4. But. . . had inner driving motivation. . . soon became the

leader of

a political party and displayed organizational skills nobody knew he

had. . .

he tried once to overthrow his country but was captured and spent nine

months

in jail. . . the ambition still burned within. . . while in prison

wrote a

book about his dream. 5. Got out of prison, convinced government he

would lead

political party legally and within a few years had a strong party that

was so

influential that he forced the president to name him prime minister of

the

country. Within six months he had taken over the country and was the

dictator

with complete power. 6. This man spread death as no man had before.

He

ordered his men, "Close your eyes to pity! Act brutally!" Who was

he? His

real name was Schicklgruber. . . but you probably know him best as

Adolf

Hitler the ambitious man who would have millions tortured and killed

in an

attempt to conquer the world.

Martin Luther Remember

that ambitious Roman Catholic priest?

a. While studying the Psalms, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and Titus he

came to

realize that salvation was not by works and through the church but was

through

faith in Jesus Christ. b. I see him now on that Halloween day as he

marched up

to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg with hammer and nails

in hand.

95 Theses. . . challenge the Roman church to debate c. I see him at

Augsburg.

. . the learned papal legate demands that he retract all his

criticisms of the

church but this man refuses. d. I see him debating the skillful Eck

where he

is forced to admit that he rejects both the authority of the popes and

the

councils when they do not conform to the Scripture. e. I see him when

he

receives the papal bull from the pope threatening to excommunicate

him. . .

what does he do, he burns it. f. Later he is summoned by the Emperor

Charles V

to an Imperial Diet at Worms, Germany. . . they demand that he

recant. . . I

hear him now. . . "Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of

Scripture, or by clear arguments, my conscience is bound in the Word

of God:

I cannot and will not recant anything. I cannot do otherwise. Her I

stand.

God help me, Amen." g. Yes, without the ambitions Martin Luther there

would

have been no Protestant church today.

Frederick Watts at 80

felt that he could yet paint better pictures than he had

done in the past; and that showed him to be a great painter.

"He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes."

- Chinese Proverb

Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 69.

A student of Amherst College, soon after entering, put over the door of his dormitory room the letter V. Because of it he endured all sorts of ridicule and withstood questioning. But he paid no attention to either, nor would he disclose the secret of the letter. When his four years were over, and graduation day came, that student was appointed to deliver the valedictory. Then the mystery of that letter V was revealed. It stood for valedictory. That letter on the door held before him during his four years the ideal that he had set for himself.

Not every boy puts a letter over the door of his college room or over the door of his house. But nevertheless, somewhere, if only in his mind, there is a letter that he pastes there and that holds before him an ideal. Some put up the letter M that stands for money. Others put up F, for fame. Others put up S, which may stand either for self or for service. It is a good idea once in a while to step outside your door and look at the letter you have put there. It may be that when you realize what it is you will want to change it.

________

Moody Monthly

Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, being jealous of the power of the senate, invited the senators to a great feast. When they were overcome with wine, Heliogabalus left the hall. The doors were fastened without; yet the carousal continued. The emperor shouted to them from a glass door in the ceiling that, as they were ever aspiring after fresh laurels, they should now be satisfied. Wreaths and flowers began to rain upon them. The senators cried, “Enough! Enough!” but the rain continued. Terror seized them. They flew to the doors; but they were immovable. Escape was impossible. The relentless storm continued till all were buried and suffocated beneath the murderous sea of flowers.

-- E. Foster

I remember hearing of a man's dream in which he imagined that

when he died be was taken by the angels to a beautiful temple.

After admiring it for a time he discovered that one stone was

missing. All finished but just one little stone; that was left

out. He said to the angel, "What is this stone left out for?"

The angel replied, "That was left out for you, but you, wanted

to do great things, and so there was no room left for you." He

was startled and awoke, and resolved that he would become a

worker for God, and that man always worked faithfully after

that. --Moody

The 12 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Leadership

================================================

1. The law of Integrity: Great business leadership is characterized by honesty, truthfulness and straight dealing with every person, under all circumstances.

2. The law of Courage: The ability to make decisions and act boldly in the face of setbacks and adversity is the key to greatness in leadership.

3. The law of Realism: Leaders deal with the world as it is, not as they wish it would be.

4. The law of Power: Power gravitates to the person who can use it most effectively to get the desired results.

5. The Law of Ambition: Leaders have an intense desire to lead; they have a clear vision of a better future, which they are determined to realize.

6. The Law of Optimism: The true leader radiates the confidence that all difficulties can be overcome and all goals can be attained.

7. The Law of Empathy: Leaders are sensitive to and aware of the needs, feelings and motivations of their people.

8. The Law of Resilience: Leaders bounce back from the inevitable setbacks, disappointments and temporary failures experienced in the attainment of any worthwhile goal.

9. The Law of Independence: Leaders know who they are, what they believe in and they think for themselves.

10. The Law of Emotional Maturity: Leaders are calm, cool and controlled in the face of problems, difficulties and adversity.

11. The Law of Excellence: Leaders are committed to excellent performance of the business task and to continuous improvement.

12. The Law of Foresight: Leaders have the ability to predict and anticipate the future.

*

"You must be single-minded. Drive for one thing on which you have decided."

-- George S. Patton

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The single common denominator of men and women who achieve great things is a sense of destiny."

-- Brian Tracy

"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve."

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."

-- Dag Hammarskjold

"The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, is energy - invincible determination - a purpose once fixed and then death or victory."

-- Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

"Your purpose is the essence of who you are. It is the reason you are alive. To know your purpose, you first have to know who you are."

-- Idelette van Papendorp, editor, B&P 8/26/02

“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this: When you die, will YOU be happy when everybody else is crying?”

-— Tony Campolo

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."

-- Woodrow T. Wilson, QFTM 2/22/03

“To reach a port, we must sail — sail, not tie at anchor — sail, not drift.”

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Every living creature that comes into the world has something allotted him to perform; therefore, he should not stand an idle spectator of what others are doing.”

-- Sarah Kirby Trimmer

"To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the end of life."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Into his nest again,

I shall not live in vain."

-- Emily Dickinson

"The great purpose of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it."

-- Unknown

"The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever."

-- Anatole France

"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."

-- Susan Ertz, in her book Anger in the Sky (1943)

"May you live all the days of your life."

-- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Joe, the Governor’s most trusted assistant, died in his sleep one night. The Governor had depended on Joe for advice on every subject, from pending bills to wardrobe decisions. In addition, Joe had been his closest friend.

So, it was understandable that the Governor didn’t take kindly to the droves of ambitious office seekers who wanted Joe’s job. “They don’t even have the decency to wait until the man is buried,” the Governor muttered.

At the funeral, one eager beaver made his way to the Governor’s side. “Governor,” the man said, “is there a chance that I could take Joe’s place?”

“Certainly,” the governor replied. “But you’d better hurry. I think the undertaker is almost finished.”

I’m sure we can all look around us and find a number of people of whom we have said, “I would like to take his/her place.” But I dare say that you have never made that statement of someone who had died, or was about to die. Why would anyone want to trade places with someone like that? It is for that reason that God’s love for us is so difficult to comprehend, for that is exactly what Jesus did for us.

“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

May our lives be forever lived in gratitude for the one who “took our place.”

President Woodrow Wilson is reported to have had a very sharp wit. It seems that while he was Governor of New Jersey, the chairman of the New Jersey Bar Association called him late one evening to tell him that the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court had just died. After the usual kind words regarding the deceased, the head of the Bar Association was trying to find an appropriate way to suggest that he be named to replace him on the bench. He said that he would be interested in "taking the deceased's place."

"Well," said Wilson, "If is all right with the undertaker, it is all right with me."

________

Monday Fodder; http://www.fishermansnet.com/monday-fodder/

“Let the average man be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, between God and human love, and God will take second place every time.”

-- A. W. Tozer

A mother bowed before Jesus with a request. Her sons were under the tutelage of the rabbi who was stirring the city with words of another kingdom, and she wanted to assure them a place. Kneeling, she uttered, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” (Matthew 20:21b).

This exchange I remember well, and I confess, often with an air of superiority. The overzealous mother, and the sons who seemed to be standing in the wing as she asked, were told they didn't quite get it. Jesus' response seemed to be aimed at both mother and sons alike, “You don't know what you are asking,” he said to them. He came to be a servant, humbling himself as a sacrifice. For people who didn't understand, he came to show them the way. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked them. “We can,” they answered, still having no idea what they were saying, much less what was about to come. Right and left seats were the least of their worries.

Author Donald Miller once realized that the right and left seats beside Jesus were also the least of his worries. He wittily explains how he never pictured himself as bothering with the seats of honor or the politics of heaven, and considered himself the better for it. In a moment of honesty, he realized he just wasn't that interested. He pictured himself more readily as being off somewhere on a remote and rolling hillside, exploring, or fishing, or napping. The seats of honor could be given to someone else.

I suspect many of us hold similar pictures. We follow Christ, but are at times unconcerned with how closely we follow, indifferent about the gap between his steps and ours, so long as we are at least following. At times we are more like James and John than we want to admit — unaware and incorrect. Perhaps to our casual wish to be uninvolved with seats and honors in heaven, Jesus would say the same to us, “You don't know what you're saying.” Maybe we don't always get it either.

The request that her sons sit on the right and left of Christ was not absurd in the sense that we sometimes read it. Their desire to remain as close to Christ as possible was not the problem, and in this sense James and John understand a great deal more than those who lag behind. It was their assumption that Jesus challenged. To be given a position of honor in the kingdom, they believed they had to hold a position of great importance on earth — exercising authority, excelling in leadership. Gathering the twelve together, Jesus corrected their beliefs with foreign words: whoever wants to become great must become a servant; whoever wants to be first must become a slave. He concluded, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Christ desires that we would love him as he first loved us, following after him as a friend and not as an acquaintance. “Greater love has no one than this,” he told his disciples, “that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). In James and John was a quality God seeks. They longed to be with Him, such that they turned their minds around when Jesus told them they weren't understanding. Like all of the disciples, they followed Christ to their deaths, becoming servants to the world they longed to reach, laying down their lives for the one they longed to follow. Let us follow similarly, not with dragging feet or minds of indifference, but as friends of the Most High.

________

Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

Jerusalem was in a panic.

As Matthew recounts in the Gospels: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem, saying ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’ When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him....” (Matthew 2:1-3).

There was a reason why the whole city went into panic: Herod was displeased, for he was insanely suspicious.

If anyone was suspected to be a rival to his power, that person was eliminated. Herold had killed many members of the Sanhedrin when he came to power. Later he slaughtered 300 court officers. He murdered his wife and her mother. He assassinated his oldest son and two others. The Roman Emperor Augustus said it was safer to be Herod’s pig than his son. When it came time for him to die later, he ordered that the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem should be arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned, and that the moment he died, they were to be executed. He was determined that someone would be crying when he died, even if not for him.

Now come these three dignitaries from the east.

Herod was secure to the west; that’s where the support of Rome was. But in the east, there were enemies. In fact, Herod had spent the better part of his first years in power building fortress-palaces along the eastern border of the country to repel any attack which might someday come. And here, into his palace, come three high ranking officials from the suspicious east asking about a baby that was born who they were calling the king of the Jews.

All in all, this was a recipe for disaster at the hands of an insecure ruler, who soon ordered the massacre of all boys age 2 and under in and around Bethlehem.

Consider this: Herod was around 70 years old at this time, and yet was so drunk on his need for power and control that he was willing to commit genocide because of one baby based on an obscure prophecy from a religion that he himself did not even believe in.

Such is the way when one’s very core is threatened; they will go to great lengths to make sure that what they have is protected.

But there is a foil in this Christmas story for Herod.

In contrast to this threatened king is a regular guy. An uneducated tradesman with no apparent aspirations or dreams. It’s a man who married under questionable circumstances and became a father to an unknown child. It’s the one who protected his wife and child, moving away from family into the pagan land of Egypt, then to the sticks out in Nazareth. This is the man who sacrificed his livelihood, his reputation, his career -- everything -- and then simply drifts out of the pages of history.

Here is Joseph, the sacrificial father, standing humbly in contrast to the threatened king. The regular guy versus the powerful dignitary. The ordinary man versus the person of privilege.

Yet these two men had something in common, and it’s that they both recognized at some level the response required to this meager baby born in a humble stable.

And that response entails our very lives.

Every hope, dream, ambition -- all must be brought to this new king and laid at his feet in faith. For some, that’s just too much. But then there are others who find, even sometimes to their own surprise, their willingness to do so.

The question for us, then, is whether we will fall in line with the threatened king who clung so desperately to all he had built for himself or the sacrificial father who lost Himself in the greatness of Jesus.

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias, incidentally, was Rameses II, who was survived by his pyramid if nothing else. The poem itself was inspired by a shattered colossus in the Ramesseum, his funeral temple, of which the Encyclopedia Britanica says 'This temple is identified with the "Tomb of Osymandias" (a corruption of Ramses II's prenomen) described by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC' - an inscription on the statue's base read:

I am Ozymandias, King of kings.

If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie,

let him surpass any of my works.

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See also http://www.savagenet.com/oz/Oz/real.htm for information on the real Ozymandias, including this which is probably originally from Time magazine's site:

Ramesses II [is] perhaps the best known of all the pharaohs, the ruler believed to have been Moses' nemesis in the book of Exodus. "Egyptians do not call him Ramesses II," Sabry Abd El Aziz, director of antiquities for the Qurna region, told TIME correspondent Lara Marlowe last week, as she and photographer Barry Iverson became the first Western journalists to enter the tomb since the new discoveries were announced. "We call him Ramesses al-Akbar--Ramesses the Greatest."

No wonder. During his 67 years on the throne, stretching from 1279 B.C. to 1212 B.C., Ramesses could have filled an ancient edition of the Guinness Book of Records all by himself: he built more temples, obelisks and monuments; took more wives (eight, not counting concubines) and claimed to have sired more children (as many as 162, by some accounts) than any other pharaoh in history. And he presided over an empire that stretched from present-day Libya to Iraq in the east, as far north as Turkey and southward into the Sudan.

Ramesses is also much celebrated outside of Egypt, though many Westerners probably don't connect the name with the fame. In Exodus he is simply known as "Pharaoh," and Shelley's poem Ozymandias, inspired by the fallen statues at the Ramesseum, his mortuary temple at Thebes, takes its title from the Greek version of one of the ruler's alternate names, User-maat-re. "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" said the inscription on the pharaoh's statue in Shelley's sonnet. Though the poet was making the point that such boasts are hollow because great monuments eventually decay, Ramesses' achievements were truly magnificent.

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Commentary by teacher Sam Swope in Newsweek's "My Turn," December 20, 2004:

I was Mr. Witt's student in 1970 and remember just a single lesson, one on the poem “Oxymandias.” Like me, most of my classmates were anti-establishment. I vaguely recall some joking comparison of Nixon to Ozymandias, his famous nose crumbling in the desert, but mostly I remember how quiet we all got when Mr. Witt focused our attention on the poem's stark implication that everyone and everything will ultimately be forgotten: Nothing beside remains. In a voice so quiet it startled me, he said, “This isn't a poem I can think about when I'm shaving.”

This came as a revelation. I'd never realized poetry could have so powerful an effect, and because I wanted that intensity of feeling, too, I read “Ozymandias” until I'd memorized it. In the end, it never unnerved me as it had Mr. Witt, but over the years it's been a valued companion, helping temper my pride and ambition.

G.K. Chesterton once remarked that to disbelieve in God would be like waking up in the morning, looking into the mirror, and seeing nothing. There would be nothing to reveal your appearance.

That is what the Bible contends is the effect of sin; it robs us of our true nature and denies us the vision of who we really are. So much of this vital Christian concept is misunderstood or misrepresented. Jesus talked about the great gain that each of us realizes when we recognize our own spiritual poverty and turn to God for deliverance from ourselves. He began his Sermon on the Mount with the words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

But does being "poor in spirit" mean being humiliated? No, humbling and humiliation are not the same thing. Only God humbles us without humiliating us and elevates us without flattering us.

This point of recognition awakened the slumbering spirit of journalist Terry Anderson who had been held captive by terrorists in Lebanon. Anderson said that during his captivity he saw much in his captors that he hated and despised. The more he saw them and talked to them, the more he was repelled by them. "Yet," he said, "in a strange way there was nothing in them that I had not now also seen in myself."

Former automotive tycoon John DeLorean tells us in his book how he found himself in a court of law as a paid informer bore false testimony against him. Watching the selfishness with which this lying witness trampled on decency, DeLorean said he suddenly saw that it was no different to the blind ambition that had driven him earlier in his own life; for in his pursuit he too had trampled on what he had once treasured. This inward look, he said, paved the way for a dramatic transformation in his life as he sought forgiveness before a merciful God.

Friend, until we come to that point of recognizing our own spiritual impoverishment, our enslavement is greater than if we were physically shackled. If we, in our world, are to be rescued from the hell that can be unleashed in our own hearts, we need to see its cause and cure. That human condition is corrected only by a humbling ourselves before God and by allowing Him to re-fashion us to reflect His work of grace by a transformed life.

_________________________

Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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The 12 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Leadership

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1. The law of Integrity: Great business leadership is characterized by honesty, truthfulness and straight dealing with every person, under all circumstances.

2. The law of Courage: The ability to make decisions and act boldly in the face of setbacks and adversity is the key to greatness in leadership.

3. The law of Realism: Leaders deal with the world as it is, not as they wish it would be.

4. The law of Power: Power gravitates to the person who can use it most effectively to get the desired results.

5. The Law of Ambition: Leaders have an intense desire to lead; they have a clear vision of a better future, which they are determined to realize.

6. The Law of Optimism: The true leader radiates the confidence that all difficulties can be overcome and all goals can be attained.

7. The Law of Empathy: Leaders are sensitive to and aware of the needs, feelings and motivations of their people.

8. The Law of Resilience: Leaders bounce back from the inevitable setbacks, disappointments and temporary failures experienced in the attainment of any worthwhile goal.

9. The Law of Independence: Leaders know who they are, what they believe in and they think for themselves.

10. The Law of Emotional Maturity: Leaders are calm, cool and controlled in the face of problems, difficulties and adversity.

11. The Law of Excellence: Leaders are committed to excellent performance of the business task and to continuous improvement.

12. The Law of Foresight: Leaders have the ability to predict and anticipate the future.

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Former President John Adams, responding to a critic in 1814, wrote:

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. ... Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”

“Let the average man be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, between God and human love, and God will take second place every time.”

-- A. W. Tozer