THE TREADMILL OF DESIRE

A vision can be a help when we are setting goals but it can also be a trap. Proverbs 27:20 warns, “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.” Ambition, like human desire, seems to be infinitely expandable. Once we have reached our goal, it is immediately replaced with another. At its best, ambition provides the energy we need to improve and accomplish. At its worst, it becomes an endless treadmill that only proves that we will never be satisfied no matter how much success we experience.
While ambition and desire are not automatically incompatible with the Christian life, they only concentrate our attention on what we lack. Th e first and fourth beatitude remind us that this is not necessarily a bad thing (Matt. 5:3, 6). But the Bible also counsels us to pursue contentment, noting that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6).