When your ambition is big then your efforts should be even bigger – Anon

Evening reflection based on Romans 15:14-29

When you were younger, what were your ambitions, your hopes and dreams? I know I spent hours riding my imaginary horse around our garden, over gymkhana fences of upturned buckets and bamboo canes, dreaming that I was appearing on the Horse of the Year show (the one programme in the year I was allowed to stay up late for) as a famous show jumper.

We recently ran a series of School Prayer Spaces at St James’ school and one of the spaces, Tardis Prayers, was a chance to wonder what we might be doing in 10, 20 or even 40 years’ time. The concept of such a huge time scale was daunting for some, but all of the children gave a bit of thought to what they hoped for.

I was expecting a lot of desires for becoming famous celebrities, and we did get our share of that – the famous footballers, dancers, singers, rappers and You Tubers (you’ll have to look that up if you’re not sure what it involves) and of course there were plenty of the more traditional careers of becoming a teacher, policeman, lawyers, engineers or vets. Then there were the more unusual and unlikely roles – to be the President of America or the Queen, and my particular favourite, to be a parrot trainer and to own a parrot.

However, there were others that thought more about the type of people they wanted to be – a person who helps homeless people, to help end world hunger and all wars, to be caring and loving – summed up in one request, ‘To God. I love the world. Please help us to be kind and in peace and together.’ We even had one potential Missionary named Chloe. She said, ‘When I am older I would like to travel around the world to poor countries like Haiti. I would like to go and help them and do church sessions. I would really like to see Daphne, my sponsored child’.

What all of this did show was that even our youngest members of society have ambitions and I think it’s true that most people regardless of their age, want to know what their purpose is in life and how they are going to achieve it. In his letter to the people of Rome, Paul is explaining that he has found just that and he lays out a path for others to discover theirs.

Paul had huge ambitions for mission. He knew very clearly that his mission was to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish sections of society, and the wider groups of people out of that small area in the Middle East. A mission that stretched across the Mediterranean region as far as we know to Spain. The edges of the known world to some extent

To personally take the gospel where people had never heard it, where Christ had never been named and it was not the same one given to everyone. Paul was called to stay in Jerusalem, Apollos was a build on other’s foundations kind of disciple, a bit like one of our Tardis prayers which was to take Bill Gates place to own Microsoft. In addition this was a new development for Paul, to go to these new uninformed people and places because at the beginning he had spent a lot of time in Jewish synagogues, teaching church leader, but now, at this point in his life he had narrowed his ambition down to a specific ministry focus, like a funnel that had started broad.

How though, do you know specifically what God’s purpose is for us? Well we should notice that Paul grounds his purpose in what God has declared as his own purpose through the Scriptures,

Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, but as it is written,

‘Those who have never been told of him shall see,
and those who have never heard of him shall understand.

Many people though whilst trying to figure out the will of God for their own lives, haven’t stopped to ask what God’s purpose is in the world. We could be the best teacher, the best lawyer, the best volunteer in the world, all great ambitions, but are their agendas the same as God’s agenda? We can be very sensitive to the needs of the world, wanting to make a difference, to relieve suffering, and that is a good ambition, but the greatest need in the world is for people to hear about Jesus, because eternal suffering would be an even greater form of suffering.

What Paul was being called to do may not be what we are called to do, but we can try to identify what it is by sensing the gifts of the Holy Spirit within us, and whatever the gifts are that we have to interpret them in the light of the bigger picture of God’s purposes stated in his word – to get the gospel to the ends of the earth!

So let’s do all we can to be ready to say, ‘Yes, Here I am Lord, let my ambitions be your ambitions, your purpose be my purpose. Reveal to me the specific calling you have for me to further your kingdom and whatever I’m good at, whatever gifts I’ve been given, and help me to use them well for your glory’.

Amen