It shares a place with words like discipline, suffering, passion, and perseverance on a list of terms that may offend comfortable Christians or skittish pagans. I know ambition is one of those almost forbidden words in Christian circles.
What do we really want God to say to us someday? What are we aiming at as we follow Christ? What’s our holy ambition? But if that isn’t the purpose for living once we’ve met Christ, then what is? What is the target of our Christian life? If we aim at nothing, we’re sure to hit it. Unfortunately, “finishing well” gets translated into some vague wish that God will say something nice to them in eternity, but they don’t dare make that phrase the purpose of their lives. Most Christians I talk to want to finish well. I’m sure you have heard at least one sermon that ended with an emotional appeal to think about how wonderful it would be in eternity to stand before God and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The problem is such sermons rarely tell you what it will take to get there. 25:21, 23) to give us a picture of the way God will settle accounts at the end of the age.
You may even know that Jesus used the phrase twice in one of His parables (Matt. You have probably heard the phrase “Well done, good and faithful servant!” as long as you have been a Christian.
