Adding Humility to Ambition

It’s Saturday morning, which may be too early for a test of your memory and observation skills. From yesterday, traveling between different buildings on campus, you may have seen a statue along your route. Did anyone notice who is depicted on the statue?

Since you probably didn’t have an official tour guide - a few quick facts about the statue, “Abraham Lincoln on the Prairie.” It was one of the last productions of the prolific 20th- century sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. It stands 14 feet tall, weighs approximately 5 tons, and was valued at $100,000 when installed here on campus in 1968.

Lincoln was a man of truly humble beginnings, as we all know. He spent basically the first half of his life living on the edge of poverty, at subsistence level. He had no formal education.

When I see that statue, I think of Abraham Lincoln as a young man on the Illinois frontier, riding his horse in his self-taught profession of land surveyor, such a crucial job on the developing frontier.

Lincoln was striving desperately to move beyond his very humble beginnings. He was filled with immense ambition. A fire clearly burned within him. But what he later needed as President in our nation’s darkest, most divided hour was an important character trait that we ALL need: Humility.

How should we define humility? The famous British preacher Charles Spurgeon once said: “Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.” And in his classic Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote of the truly humble man: “He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

The humble person isn’t one who goes around, shoulders sagging and head slumped down, bemoaning “I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy.” Though that should be our posture before God -- it is a “right estimate” of our own spiritual condition -- that shouldn’t characterize how we carry ourselves in daily life.

In a recent conversation I had with another Kairos dad, he raised a very similar definition and offered the example of a doctor in a medical emergency. Can you imagine the doctor saying: “Oh, I’m not really that good, I don’t know if I could really help this person. There are better doctors…” etc.? We’d revoke his medical license!

Yet we all need humility. For greater wisdom on this topic, let’s look at Matthew 23:11-12. This comes within Jesus’ extended rebuke of the Pharisees for their self-absorbed, self-righteous attitudes and behavior. In verses 11 and 12, Jesus said: “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Like many things Jesus taught in His upside-down Kingdom, this tends to strike us as unnatural. Really? I have to lower myself, I have to serve to be a great leader? Yet the ultimate picture of going from humility to exaltation comes from the early church doxology in Philippians 2:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow….”

It’s one thing to have a proper appraisal of yourself and recognizing your strengths and weaknesses. It’s also about recognizing the Lordship of Jesus. And that we can be servants and servant-leaders, wherever we’re called, because Jesus set the ultimate example.

Back to Lincoln, a man of his own humble beginnings. We pointed out earlier his driving ambition. Great ambition, unchecked by humility, can have dangerous consequences -- whether political tyrants, unscrupulous corporate executives, or surgeons with “God complexes.” Yet over time, Lincoln learned to tame his ambitions in service of great principles: to preserve the republic and later, to end slavery.

Quoting from a character sketch of our 16th President from a book aptly titled Humility: “Many people whose early path to power is full of hardship forget their early commitment to equality. Fond of the newfound perks of power, they are quick to publicly recall stories of their hardscrabble past, but then turn privately to their lives of luxury, with little regard for others who have nothing. Lincoln’s path to power was unusual, for his humility grew as he became more powerful, almost as if the farther removed he found himself from his difficult past, the more humble he became.”

One more example. You know who else demonstrated humility? John the Baptist, the cousin and forerunner of Jesus. He had a great mission, a great calling. But we turn to John 3 to see his reaction when the big crowds started leaving him. Here’s a real test of what will win out: untamed ambition or true humility.

John 3:27-30: “ John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Time is short, but we can quickly draw out a couple key points:

1. John the Baptist had a right estimate of himself, and that right estimate of himself elevated the Greatest One of all to the proper role. In verse 28, he says: “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.” Notice John the Baptist does not disparage the importance of the job he was called to do. He just has the right estimation of himself that shapes the right response when his popularity starts to wane.

2. Second, John the Baptist closes this passage, famously saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Wow, that’s convicting! Shouldn’t this be the motto of every Christian? Aren’t we all tempted to think too much of ourselves and not enough of our Savior? Not a down-in-the-mouth, shoulders-slumped, woe-is-me posture. After all, the Bible doesn’t tell us that John gave up and quit. He labored on, but in greater obscurity and with joy.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Both John the Baptist and Lincoln had great ambitions, high callings, and both have been highly honored in their own way. The world almost certainly won’t remember us as it has remembered them. Nonetheless, the truth remains: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Looking out at this crowd, I see great potential here. To be clear: Ambition to do great things isn’t bad. Far from it. Our nation, and even more importantly, the Kingdom of God, calls for great people in every generation to seek to do great things.

What are your ambitions for today? Maybe it’s to make the tournament finals, or maybe it’s just to make it through the day! Truth be told, most of us will eventually forget this specific tournament. As Pastor Gelman reminded us yesterday, this event is not that important in the big scheme of things.

But you have other ambitions: college or career, marriage and family, different types of service… It can take many forms.

As you travel between rounds today and pass Abraham Lincoln on the Prairie, maybe spare a moment to remember this: Great ambition, especially in service of great principles, can do great good, but only when harnessed to humility. Not just an honest recognition of both our strengths and our limitations, but most of all, in serving our great Lord and Savior.