Hill Releases Next ‘Let’s Talk About It’
Church of God General Overseer Tim Hill has released the next in the series, “Let’s Talk About It,” insights and observations shared to inspire conversation.
Hill’s latest contribution is entitled, “Humbly Ambitious: Keeping Ambition In Check.”
“Admittedly, we live in a very ambitious world and in and of itself ambition is not evil or bad,” Hill states in the opening paragraph. “If you don’t have ambition, then there’s not much reason to get out of bed in the morning…It can be very useful if we are ambitious for the right things, but ambition can often get out of control. In all of us, the lines can blur and cause what I call a humility disruption. One day we’re consumed with pleasing the Lord, and the next we’ve become dominated by the idol of self-made success.”
Hill then addresses the importance of keeping ambition in check as not just being recommended, but necessary: “When we’re humbly ambitious, we’ll be far more concerned with how our work reflects on God than how it reflects on us. We’ll be far more driven to develop our skills for the sake of our neighbors rather than ourselves. We don’t eliminate pride by smothering ambition, but by refining and properly directing it. The only way to fight our thirst for glory is to be consumed with bringing glory to God.”
Hill gives illustrations from scripture, including Matthew 20 where a mother requested that her sons, James and John, have places of high honor in the Kingdom. She had big dreams for her sons and they had even bigger ambitions.
Hill continues the subject with some personal ministerial insight and by asking the question, “Can you drink of the cup? The idea of the ‘cup’ in the Bible speaks of an intense personal experience. It’s the same image Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed that the cup of suffering he was about to drink might be taken from him. He also asks the reader, “Do you really want a position in church leadership? Be careful when you pray because you might just get what you ask for.”
He concludes the entry with the challenge to be a servant leader. Jesus said, “Do you want to be a leader? Then become a servant. Pick up a towel and wash someone’s feet. Think of yourself as a slave and not as a master.” In saying this, Jesus totally rejected the world’s way of doing business. Instead of using people, serve them. That’s what makes a good leader – the ambition to “serve” others. Otherwise, we are position seekers with self-serving agendas.
To read the article in its entirety, click here.
