Somewhere along the way, ambition got a bad name in the Australian church.
I’m not talking about pride or ego, I’m talking about ambition.
The desire to build something meaningful or attempt something significant. To believe God could actually use your life for more than simply getting by.
For many of us, the message wasn't spoken outright, but we heard it anyway: Calm down, mate.
Which translates to; don't get carried away, don’t take yourself too seriously or dream too big.
We’ve learned to shrink. We called it humility but really it was fear and slowly what began as caution became a culture where playing it safe is celebrated and ambition is treated as a character flaw rather than a gift from God.
But here’s the thing: ambition isn't the enemy. Pride is.
And there’s a world of difference between the two.
Pride says, "Look what I can do” but Holy ambition says, "God, take everything you've given me and use it for your glory."
One first seeks attention and the other seeks obedience.
One wants a platform and the other just wants purpose.
Yet we've confused the two, and in doing so, we've crushed the very thing God often places in people to advance his kingdom.
Sometimes it happens through insecure leaders who feel threatened by emerging voices and sometimes it happens through a culture that values caution more than courage.
Either way, the message sounds familiar: Dream small.
In Cars 3, Cruz Ramirez (the yellow car, you know?) tells Lightning McQueen that her family always told her, "If you're going to dream, dream small." Crazy right?
But also, not really, because most of us know exactly what that feels like. Dream small and stay in your lane.
The problem there is that small dreams rarely stay small. Given enough time, they become disappointment and unrealised calling and eventually people settle into a life they were never created to live.
The hard truth is that playing it safe isn't always humble, sometimes it's just comfortable.
But ambition can be holy. When surrendered to God, ambition becomes fuel.
It's what drove the apostles to keep preaching after imprisonment and persecution.
It's what compelled missionaries to leave comfort behind and carry the Gospel to places no one wanted to go.
It's what moved people like William Carey to attempt great things for God and expect great things from Him.
And it's what still drives believers today to plant churches, build businesses, raise families, serve communities and step into callings that seem far bigger than themselves.
Jon Tyson preached at Exponential Conference last year and said something that has stayed with me:
"When we see the challenge of our generation, our hearts should rise."
That's the response God is looking for.
Not competition but courage.
Competition shrinks the Kingdom because it turns brothers and sisters into rivals.
Holy ambition expands the Kingdom because it celebrates what God is doing through others while remaining fully committed to your own assignment.
The Church doesn't need less ambition, it needs redeemed ambition. Holy ambition.
We need believers willing to take the call of God seriously enough to build.
People who don't just pray for revival but prepare for it.
People who enlarge the size of their tent because they genuinely believe God intends to move.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said:
"I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."
That's ambition. Not self-centred ambition. Redeemed ambition.
I’d even go so far as to say: a holy determination to become everything God created you to be.
So let me ask you:
What has Jesus taken hold of in your life?
What dream have you buried?
What calling have you downsized?
What act of obedience have you delayed because someone told you to calm down?
Holy ambition is the conviction that what God has entrusted to you is too important to waste.
The world needs more Christians like that; People willing to go all in, willing to build, willing to risk, willing to believe.
So don't apologise for your ambition. Just surrender it and aim it toward the Kingdom.
And when someone tells you to calm down, smile and keep building.
Because maybe they've forgotten what it feels like to go all in on Christ.