Selfish Ambition

Selfish Ambition
by Jason Cruise 

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. - James  3:16

As with many men I know, God did me a great favor when He planted my wife into my life twenty years ago. Little did I know then that she would become the one primarily responsible for slowly de-constructing my precious ego. I'm not bitter about it. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

I feel an impulsive need to offer my disclaimer to the world, for you must realize, friend, what I was up against in my formative, early years. I was an only child. Moreover, I was the only grandchild on one side of the family. Stop right there and you have the perfect storm for a soon-to-be adult with little hope for social harmony. Add to that the truth that I was the son of a PGA Professional and thus became obsessed with the game of golf; thus, I was the ultimate test case of a man-in-the-making with an only child disposition, who also possessed an insane obsession for a game that was all about you and your personal performance. Needless to say, it doesn't take a degree in psychology to surmise that in most situations, whatever "it" was, you can bet it was going to be about me.

Marriage, and the one I'm married to, helped me quickly see how destructive selfish ambition can truly be in this thing we call life.

Selfishness is an emotional baseball bat swung wildly into your circle of relationships. Swing that bat, friend, and things are going to get broke. Selfishness breaks things, and those "things" tend to be real people who are capable of being bruised ... by you. The end result is, as James tells us, disorder and every evil "thing" that comes with it.

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