A Long Obedience
The older I get, the more convinced I become that gratitude and ambition must learn to coexist…or one will eventually poison the other.
We turn 30 this year!
That is a significant milestone. One any business ought to celebrate should they be fortunate enough to survive that long.
One of my client’s businesses turned 30 last year. Another turns 40 this year. Still another recently crossed the 75-year mark.
That. Is. Incredible!
And yet, if you are a business leader with even a modest amount of ambition and drive, milestones like these often create an internal tension that is difficult to explain to people outside the leadership seat.
On one hand, there is genuine gratitude. Wow. What a blessing. We made it. Lives have been impacted. Families have been supported. Customers have been served. Problems have been solved. We survived recessions, setbacks, losses, disappointments, and mistakes that could have ended the journey altogether.
There is much to celebrate.
But on the other hand, there is often a quiet discontent whispering in the background. We still have so far to go. Why are we not further along by now? Why are we not bigger? Stronger? More influential? More impactful?
We just can’t help ourselves sometimes. And honestly, this doesn’t only happen in business.
I turn 60 this year.
Am I where I thought I would be “when I grow up?” Have I fully maximized my potential? Have I lived the adventurous, meaningful, high-impact life I imagined along the way?
If we are honest, most purpose-driven leaders wrestle with these questions, particularly those who still carry vision in their bones.
Because leadership creates a strange psychological phenomenon: The goalposts tend to move every time we reach them.
Ten years ago, survival would have felt miraculous. Now survival feels ordinary. At one point, stability was the dream. Now stability can feel insufficient.
One of the strangest tensions in leadership is the fact that the more successful we become, the harder it can become to actually feel successful.
That reality creates a genuine spiritual and emotional challenge for leaders who are trying to pursue meaningful growth without becoming consumed by restless striving.
As Christians, we are called into this fascinating tension.
We are given what is often referred to as “The Creation Mandate” – to build, cultivate, multiply, develop, steward, and extend goodness into the world.
At the same time, Scripture repeatedly calls us toward contentment, peace, gratitude, and trust. Paul tells the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians 4:9 – 12) to “...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life...”
What a strange instruction for ambitious people. And yet there it is.
I don’t believe this position is an abandonment of ambition. When we recognize our charge is to live in tensions like this, it becomes the redemption of it.
There is a difference between godly ambition and endless striving. One flows from stewardship. The other from insecurity.
One says: “I want to faithfully maximize what God has entrusted to me.” The other says: “I will never be enough unless I achieve more.”
Those are not the same thing.
I think many leaders unknowingly spend years moving the goalposts of their own joy. We achieve something meaningful, but before gratitude has time to settle in, we immediately pivot toward what remains unfinished.
The problem is not vision. The problem is the absence of reflection and remembrance.
Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly instructed his people to stop, reflect, and remember. Altars were built. Stones were stacked. Feasts were celebrated. Sabbaths were observed.
Why? Because human beings are astonishingly quick to forget what God has already done. Especially ambitious human beings.
Healthy leaders learn to celebrate before accelerating again. Not because the mission is complete. Not because growth no longer matters. But because gratitude stabilizes the soul.
Without it, ambition eventually becomes corrosive.
As leaders responsible for organizations, teams, families, ministries, and legacies, I believe we must guard our hearts carefully.
Yes, there is still opportunity ahead of you. Yes, there may also be unrealized potential that will never fully materialize this side of eternity.
That’s life. That’s leadership.
And perhaps maturity is learning to carry both realities simultaneously without allowing either one to dominate us.
Be strong and courageous. Show up. Lead well. Build faithfully. Pursue growth.
But also pause long enough to recognize the goodness already present in your story.
Because scale is not the only measure of success. Faithfulness matters too. And sometimes the businesses, leaders, marriages, ministries, and families most worthy of celebration are not the flashiest ones…
They are simply the ones that remained faithful long enough to endure.
Blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society"
- Eugene Peterson
From Amazon: Since Eugene Peterson first wrote this spiritual formation classic more than forty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Christians have been inspired by its call to deeper discipleship.
As a society, we are still obsessed with the immediate, but Peterson's time-tested prescription for discipleship remains the same―a long obedience in thesame direction.
Long obedience requires a deepening life of prayer. Peterson finds encouragement for today's pilgrims in the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), sung by travelers on their way to worship in Jerusalem. With prophetic and pastoral wisdom, Peterson shows how the psalms teach us to grow in worship, service, joy, work, happiness, humility, community, blessing, and more.
This commemorative edition features:
· a preface from Leif Peterson's eulogy at his father's memorial service,
· a bibliography of Eugene Peterson's works, and
· the option to pair with the companion Bible study guide, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Bible Study, for a deeper experience.
"Eugene Peterson's special gift is to stand beside us and keep our feet on the ground as he lifts our hearts to God and our minds to godliness. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, which does this stunningly well, is also the best pathway into the Psalter you are likely to find. If, like me for twenty years, you find it hard to get into the Psalms, that is another reason to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest this brilliant book." – J. I. Packer, author of Knowing God
MMS 26-20
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