Getting ahead

I am reading the Cost of Discipleship right now.

Before I get started with that -- you might be thinking, "Wow, Leah is always reading a new book. She is so cool." I just want to put your thoughts to rest. Here's the real reason I'm always reading a new book. Ever since I finished college, I'll start a book, get super excited about it, and then quit. The last book I finished I had to make myself just so that I wouldn't continue my bad habit.

Back to the point. In the memoir at the beginning of the book, whoever wrote that was talking about a couple different sins and what Bonhoeffer thought of them. The one that stood out to me was ambition. He says that ambition is the "start of the road to hell." Strong words for sure.

I've read before that ambition is bad. That has never made sense to me though. To me ambition meant being pro-active, goal-oriented, not lazy. Why is that bad?

Yesterday I read that word and instantly knew why it was bad. There wasn't any special definition that enlightened me. I understood it for the first time because only recently has ambition become a part of my life. Obviously, it was sneaking up on me, but when I read that word yesterday it grabbed me by the shoulders and yelled, "Boo!"

Ambition wants to give me success. It'll make my dreams a reality. But, ambition only has room for one...not two, three, or four...just me.

It really is a tricky one. For me it seemed so innocent until I saw it in me.