Your Drive Could be Your Downfall

Or it could be your sanctification.

How often do we misuse the gifts that God has given us?

How often do we use our talents to attain selfish ends?

Your drive, your fire, it’s God-given. You can use it honorably. Or you can use it to pursue material things. Pleasure. Fame. Power.

You can honor God with it, or you can betray Him. Remember that.

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The greater your ambition, the more potent your drive, the bigger the responsibility that you carry.

Not all men are blessed with fire in their hearts. Not all men have been given the gift of ambition. It’s only a minority of men who feel the quiet discomfort, the urge to push forward, the drive to build.

A fiery soul is a blessing from heaven.

Oh, but how me misuse such a gift! How we orient it towards seeking to gain goods for ourselves. How we choose to take our God-given drive and pursue vain pleasure, the accumulation of material things, the fulfillment of those selfish, false “needs” that serve no purpose but stroking our own ego and gaining power in the eyes of others.

Woe to the man who’s been blessed with fire and chooses to let it push him towards idolatry and hell.

Woe to the man who lets himself be seduced and tempted by the shiny objects of this world and makes of attaining them his final purpose.

That man will lose his soul and let his drive be his downfall. That man will reach the end of the line and look back in sorrow at the mundane, temporary things which he betrayed eternity for.

Is it God’s fault for giving you an unquenchable thirst for forward motion and blessing you with ambition and great aspirations?

Or is it your fault for failing to orient that ambition towards virtue?

Maybe most of us will misuse our drive. Maybe most of us will fall prey to the temptations that the world offers.

Some will misuse their fire. Some will tame it and choose the comfort of lower aspirations.

But there’s some among us who won’t do either.

Some will let that fire burn, but through sacrifice and self-denial, direct it towards virtue.

Some will realize that the drive that could lead them to hell is the same drive that could make them relentless in the pursuit of sanctity.

These are the saints that we remember. These are the men who ordered their ambition, and directed it not towards material success, but towards virtue, sacrifice, sanctification. These are the men who purified their intentions and let their fire fuel them, not out of a selfish desire for recognition, but out of a deep love of God.

Oh, how the world needs men who let their righteous fire burn bright!

How the world needs men who can light the way for those who follow!

How the world needs men ready to sacrifice to the point of exhaustion, to deny themselves completely and put their fire to the service of others!

How the world needs men relentless not in the pursuit of cars and jewelry, but in the pursuit of holiness!

Ambition can make great saints. It’s a fiery heart that will keep you going when you’ve failed for the thousandth time. It’s that drive that we so often misuse that will get you to crawl on your knees, back to Christ, when you’ve sinned again and again and again.

Let your fire burn bright, but make sure it longs so strongly for Heaven that all your efforts are directed towards attaining it!

Let your drive be a tool for sanctification, and commit to the pursuit of sanctity, which is the vocation of all Christians.

Let your greatest ambition be to reach the loving arms of your Savior, to be with Him for all eternity!

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