Holy Ambition: A Christian Athlete’s Guide to Pursuing Greatness
I lived in Adidas and Nike gear as a young athlete with much of my clothing displaying phrases like “Impossible is Nothing” “Just Do It” and “Man Up”. I was typically the smallest athlete on the field often feeling like I had something to prove. I found the short quippy slogans inspiring. Maybe I can just do it. Maybe all I need to do is ‘man up’. Maybe nothing is impossible for me.
We’re all taught from a young age to “be all you can be” or “dream big”. Colleges conferences boast similar messages as their brand. “SEC: It Just Means More” or “ACC: Accomplish Greatness.” These inspirational quips are meant to inspire and encourage young athletes to be ambitious.
Ambition is the desire to become more and do more with the talent God has given. For athletes, that desire often shows up in training, competing, dreaming, and striving for excellence. The real question is not whether ambition is present, but where’s the line between holy ambition and selfish ambition?
Created with Potential
For the Christian athlete, being ambitious does just mean more as we believe God created us to accomplish great things for the glory of God and goodness of creation.
Being made in God’s image means humanity’s purpose was to represent God — a holy purpose. God created humanity with immense potential towards that end. Humans were to rule over the earth in partnership with God, multiply to become great in number, fill the earth with God’s goodness, and be incredibly fruitful (Genesis 1:27-28.) God created humanity with potential to further develop His creation to be a place for human flourishing. God created humans to have holy ambition and pursue excellence.
Keep reading Genesis and you’ll find humans quickly distorting and misplacing ambition. Instead of striving to rule and create alongside God, humans become ambitious for more power and ultimately disobey their Creator. This cycle continues throughout the Bible. The Tower of Babel tells the story of people using their resources to strive for power and dominance. Exodus tells the story of the Israelites mistrusting the resources God has given them to flourish. The prophets tell stories of kings whose self glorifying ambition leads to complete chaos.
Ambition in Sport
Sports are the most exciting when ambitious individuals push each other testing physical and creative capacity. The Olympics and World Championships are a great example as records are often broken and new standards are set. Bobsled runs get faster. Pole vaulting limits continue to rise. Gymnasts attempt new stunts. When athletes compete and give their best effort, people get faster, stronger, and better within their sport. Competition is exciting because ambitious people participate. There is beauty in sport when humans are reaching for their God-given potential. It points us to a good God who created our bodies with great capacity and our minds with incredible creativity.
While this gives us vision for what godly ambition can look like in sport, we know from experience this does not always play out. With the increase of money in youth sports, NIL, and sports gambling, temptation to be ambitious for ungodly reasons increases. Being ambitious becomes less about the common good and more about getting ahead to prove dominance and worth.
Misaligned ambition in sport can be hard to diagnose as it concerns internal motivations. Here are signs of misaligned ambition:
Intense negative reactions when someone else (a teammate or opponent) succeeds over you
Inappropriate anger and rage when losing
Burnout caused by needless over working
Gossiping about others in an effort to make yourself look better
Inability to celebrate other people’s success
Obsession that leads to overtraining, loss of sleep, or pushing far beyond physical limits
Three Temptations of Ambition
This cycle of mistrust and misaligned ambition continues on repeat in the Biblical narrative – until Jesus.
As Jesus emerged from the waters of his baptism, a voice from heaven descended saying “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17 It was a message of meaning, significance, and secure attachment to the Father prior to getting to work and starting his ministry. Jesus is then led into the wilderness. After 40 days of prayer and fasting, Jesus faces the same cyclical test we find in the Old Testament. He is tempted three times to mistrust God and misalign ambition. Three times Jesus resists temptation responding with Scripture.
In The Ache for Meaning, Tommy Brown identifies three questions at the heart of these temptations: Will I have enough? Am I enough? Do I matter?
Will I have enough?Matthew 4:3-4 The tempter begins by addressing an abundance vs scarcity mindset. Jesus is likely hungry after 40 days of fasting. The tempter entices Jesus to change that situation by usurping God’s authority and taking matters into his own hands to fill a felt need. Jesus responds acknowledging that sustenance for life comes from God alone. Daily bread is a gift.
God has given us each a measure of capacity, ability, and talent. It’s tempting to become ungrateful for the gifts God has given us thinking we perhaps deserve more. Our hunger for more takes over when we convince ourselves that our God given talents are not enough. Envious comparison creeps in and threatens to destroy our peace. Focusing on our lack causes desperation and we respond by aiming our ambition at filling the gap. We could benefit from shifting our perspective to abundance rather than scarcity. God is the provider – the giver of every good gift. Realign your ambition through gratitude.
Am I enough?Matthew 4:5-7 The second temptation challenges Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. The tempter asks Jesus to prove himself by performing a stunt. At his baptism, Jesus was given a message from God regarding his worth and identity. Jesus does not need to give in and prove anything. God’s proclamation over him was enough.
Performance based identity is a tempting trap. It’s easy to believe that success and achievement will make us feel worthy. But we all know how short lived that feeling can be. God gives us something more secure and eternal: a purpose based identity. As God’s image bearers, our purpose is to cultivate and multiply God’s goodness in sport. This gives us a transcendent purpose for our ambition. We can pursue excellence knowing the results do not define our worth. God has already called us beloved children and given us purpose. What more do we need?
Do I matter?Matthew 4:7-10 The tempter levels up the intensity in the final temptation by taking Jesus to ‘a very high mountain’ and showing him ‘all the kingdoms in the world.’ The tempter then promises to give Jesus power over every kingdom. All he has to do is bow down and worship the tempter. Jesus rebukes the tempter and acknowledges that worshipping God and serving others is where real power and glory lies.
There’s a major false promise in sport: “give me your everything and I will give you significance and eternal glory.” This speaks to a common end goal of being ambitious. We bow down to sport in unhealthy ways hoping it will deliver on its promise to bring self glory. When we worship God, we are acknowledging that His glory is beyond anything we could ever achieve on earth. In the eyes of this glorious God, we are significant and do not need to give our lives to anything else to prove it. Because we no longer need sport for significance, we can aim our ambition at freely serving others. This is where our ambition becomes the most powerful.
We learn from Jesus and the three temptations that the line between holy and selfish ambition is drawn where we find our meaning and significance.
Go Forth With Holy Ambition
Competing from a holy ambition starts at believing that in Christ we have enough, we are enough, and we do matter. From there, our identity and pursuit of excellence is transformed to focus on human flourishing rather than selfish accomplishments. The Holy Spirit desires to renew and restore us back to that garden scene in Genesis where humans work out of inherent goodness given by a holy God. A place where God made humans ambition for the purpose of representing His glory to all of creation.
Receive the words of our Heavenly Father “This is my child, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased.”
Now, go. Be ambitious. Accomplish greatness – not to gain significance but because God created you with great potential and a holy purpose.
Reflect:
What talent or gifts has God given you to serve others in your sport?
Which of the three questions do you struggle with most: Will I have enough? Am I enough? Do I matter?
How can you remind yourself before competition that you already have enough, are enough, and matter because you belong to God?
