Excerpt from Rescuing Ambition, author - Dave Harvey
Earlier I mentioned my struggle with these kinds of ambition. I call them "Davebitions." So often I'm Davebitious. I assume that my family would work much better if they all majored in Daveology. Friendships work best if they have a Daveistic bent. I believe many of life's misunderstandings could be cleared up with just a few Daveological insights. Overall the world would be a better place if we could just celebrate an annual Davetoberfest.
I guess you can call me a Daveaholic.
There, I've said it. I feel so much better.
Now, before you let yourself off the hook and offer prayers for my suffering wife and family, think about this. The reason I'm a Daveaholic is not temperament or because I was deprived of something as a child. I didn't get this from my environment. I got it from my ancestors--Adam and Eve. And since we all share the same ancestors, you got it too. The problem - the reason we're all engaged in a quest for self-confined glory - is sin.
The early church used a fascinating visual to describe the self preoccupying nature of sin: incurvatus in se. It means we "curve in on ourselves." In the service of self, our desires boomerang. When a hardwired desire for glory is infected with incurvatus in se, noble ambitions collapse. The quest for self-glory rules the day - as it did that day in Eden.
In our desire to be great, we actually shrink ourselves.
(pages 37 & 38)
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