How Ambition Makes Me a Bad Friend

I have this issue with ambition that I regularly struggle with. You see, I want to go places, do things, live my life! So in an effort to get there I ignore the here. I look to the future, a thing that the world says I must do, but by doing I so largely ignore the present.

This is known as unhealthy ambition. And it makes me a very bad friend and son to my folks. This is because it gets me to always work towards the goal. For me, the goal is to become a full time novelist. So I’m working at my writing career from all angles to get there, so that one day I’ll “have the time to spend with those I love.”

The problem is that that time will never come. I mean, I know one day I’ll be a full time novelist, but what makes me think I’ll then have the time to spend with those I love? I have to keep my career going then.

Most of us work our lives away so we can enjoy our retirement. But when our retirement comes it’s short lived because our health, and our relationships, suffered so much in the process.

What we really all want is joy, peace, love and a bit of adventure. At least that’s how it is for me. And I can have that all pretty easily by just looking for it in the right place.

For the Kingdom of Heaven is a treasure hidden in a field. God is the source of real joy. That’s where I need to go looking for it. But why do I get sidetracked so easily, and so miss the very thing I’m looking for?

Rather I keep chasing after fleeting dreams which, even though they may be good in themselves, are tainted by this unhealthy ambition to get me there.

I’m know my experience is not unique. If you’re like me, let’s look to God as the source of our joy and hope and let our ultimate ambition be to truly know Him.

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Alive First Draft Finished!

Hooray! The first draft for my new book Alive is finished! Now it’s going to my pastor for him to check out and advise on some of the more theological and pastoral matters 🙂

This gives me more time to focus on my fiction book and writing music — really hoping for December to be a great month for creativity! Can’t wait for things to quieten down.

Seven Chapters In

I’m seven chapters in with the first draft of my new book “Alive”, which is about enjoying life, and I’m quite excited about that. It looks like it’ll be a nice short book, like I planned, maybe about 120 book pages.

I originally planned for it to be seven chapters but that has increased to nine as I’ve added a few more in that seemed important.

So far, I’ve covered a chapter on the purpose of the book; a chapter on hedonism; a chapter on knowing God; a chapter on being in communion with God; a chapter on love; a chapter on money; and this morning I’ve just finished a chapter on taking risks.

It’s flowing very nicely and I’m really excited about this work. It has also helped to solidify stuff I believe around the topic of enjoying life. Once its done I’ll probably post a few snippets of it here on this blog, so if anyone is interested they should check back here.