Waiting Ambitiously

A couple weeks ago I won a book in a drawing called Rescuing Ambition. Unlike most of the other books I mention on MissionsOutlook, I didn't have to review it. As I was reading the book, I came across a pretty powerful section that helped me do a double-take on my life.

Sometimes I feel retrasado, delayed. I long to be a missionary. I would love to be involved in full-time ministerial work. I want to finish seminary. Yet I've barely just begun. And though I am still young, I have a child on the way, I work a secular job, and I barely have 12 credits. After finishing college in two and a half years, I will probably take seven years just to get my MDiv.

This can make me feel, like I said, delayed. Like I'm not moving fast enough. Like every day I wait means my dreams are slowly fading into the unreachable future.

That's why I had a double-take. That's why Rescuing Ambition is helping me see something else. Here's what it said:

"We may be tempted to think that if our ambitions are delayed, they will fade. ... God purifies our ambitions by delaying their fulfillment. An ambition with a waiting sign is an ambition that is being smoothed in a riverbed of God's activity. The rough edges—the selfishness in our ambitions—become smooth. The ambition is purified. The dull exterior starts to shine.

I need to remember that waiting is one of God's methods for building Christ-likeness in His saints. And Christ-likeness is a worthy ambition.