The Instinct of Ambition: The Story of MosesSample

Discouragement and Disillusion

Moses may have seemed ambitious in his youth, but after 40 years leading sheep in obscurity, Moses seemed suddenly drained of his ambition. God appeared to Moses in that burning bush and called him to go back and lead the Hebrew people out of Egyptian slavery. Wasn’t this the very thing Moses had wanted? Shouldn’t he be thrilled at this divinely inspired second chance?

But Moses was suddenly reluctant. “I’m slow of speech,” he protested. “Surely there is someone better,” he argued. Finally, Moses put it directly. “God, send someone else.” Where was his ambition now?

It’s easy to shake your head at Moses. How can this be the same man? He seems to have lost himself. But I think this is often the real experience of ambition. For as often as we feel that burning fire of ambition’s call, we just as often sense our own failures. We fail to live up to our own expectations and our ambitions slip into discouragement and disillusionment.

You shouldn’t think ambition is always motivating. Sometimes our ambitions feel more like a curse, just out of reach. Moses hadn’t lost his ambition. He seems now stunted and reduced by it. As it had once moved him, now that same ambition now restricts him. Ambition can trip us both in action and inaction.

If you are feeling discouraged and disillusioned by your own failures and the impossible standards of your ambition, it's worth acknowledging that you haven’t let go either. It is still ambition that frames your evaluations of yourself and the moment.

God responded directly to Moses' protest. He would send Aaron to be his help. He would offer Moses divine signs to give the people. He would offer Moses his divine presence as a guide. Moses eventually went, but he still seemed reluctant. I want you to see that Moses has not abandoned his ambition. It still defined him.

Perhaps your lost ambitions still define you too. The trap of ambition is that everything is measured by it. Wouldn’t it be great if God showed up to you in a burning bush too? Wouldn't it be great if he gave you these unique gifts, promises, and tools to accomplish your great ambitions?

But it is more complicated than that. Your greatest need is not that your ambitions would be fulfilled. Your greatest need is that ambition would lose its power over you. That you would not be defined by it but would be able to receive something better, what God is doing.

I believe your ambitions are best when you are capable of growing beyond them. God has something better. Moses would receive it too.

How can ambition lead to discouragement and disillusionment?