Ambition Is To Be Used For Others
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Philippians 2:3-8
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
In this powerful passage on ambition and humility, Paul calls to our attention the ultimate example of humility. He suggests our own attitude about these traits should be the same as Christ. He goes on to describe with powerful words Christ’s willingness to forsake equality with God and take on “human likeness” – then chose to humble himself further with a humiliating death on a cross – for you and me.
This is indeed the ultimate example for us in balancing ambition and humility. The key is to focus on others. In the first devotional in this series on ambition, I mentioned my good friend, plastic surgeon Victor Grishkevich. Victor is a world-class plastic surgeon with expertise in burn care for children. In the communist Soviet Union for years, he and his family were persecuted for their Christian beliefs. They were denied access to good housing and good schools because of their public profession of their Christian faith.
After the veil of the harshest communism was lifted in the early 1990’s, Victor’s sons were able to immigrate to the United States for training in dentistry and medicine. It was Victor’s desire for several years to unite his family in the US. With a promise of a much better professional situation for himself, security and reunion for his family, and the promise of long-term freedom to share the gospel, the US seemed to hold all he needed. But when finally the permission from his government came for him and his wife to immigrate to the US, he made a hard decision to stay in the Soviet Union. When I questioned him about this decision, he simply told me that the current environment in his home country allowed him to freely share the gospel for the first time in his life. And he knew if history held true, this may be a short window of opportunity for religious freedom in Russia. He made the decision to forgo reunion with his family, the promise of a better professional opportunity, and assurance of permanent religious freedom in order to share the gospel with the unsaved of his home country. For an ambitious plastic surgeon, this was an amazingly strong balance with humility used for others.
Lord, protect me from selfish ambition. Give me a heart with humility to be used for others.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
Photo by Harris Ananiadis on Unsplash
