Ambition with Integrity
Wanting big without losing your soul.
How to chase real things without becoming someone you'd hate.
The big idea
Ambition isn't sin. Ambition disconnected from integrity is.
What does “Ambition with Integrity” walk through?
Gain the World
Mark 8:36 · KJV
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
In plain English
What's the win if you get everything you wanted but lose who you actually are?
The Quiet Question
Climbing is not the problem. WHAT you climb over is. WHO you become to get there is. Ambition that costs you your soul isn't ambition — it's a slow disaster.
All Heart, As For God
Colossians 3:23 · KJV
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
In plain English
Do your work with full effort and integrity. Make it an offering to God, not just to impress people.
“It's not wrong to want big things. It's wrong to want them more than you want to be a good person.”
The Test
If you got everything you're chasing right now — would the version of you that arrives there be someone you'd want to be? If not, change what you're chasing OR change how you're chasing it.
Pray
God, let me want what's worth wanting. Give me ambition aimed at the right things, and the integrity to get there honestly.
Write it down
What are you chasing right now? Is the path getting you closer to who you want to become?
You finished: Ambition with Integrity
You don't have to choose between succeeding and staying yourself. Most days you have to choose both — over and over.
Which passages does this journey use?
2 passages, drawn from Mark 8:36, Colossians 3:23. Every verse appears here in the King James text with a plain-English line beside it, so you can read it without a commentary open. Allow about 5 minutes for the whole thing, or 6 short sittings.
- Mark 8:36
- Colossians 3:23
Read any of these in full on the complete KJV, or look the wording up independently at Blue Letter Bible.
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