To some ways of thinking Religion frowns on aspiration. Indeed it prefers sacrifice and altruism over ambition.
The Beatitudes speak for themselves:
Consider this, Matthew 5:3-12 begins with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with the word ‘Blessed’.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, those that mourn, those that are meek, those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those persecuted in the name of righteousness”.
So essentially Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of Heaven will be inherited by a rag-tag bunch of misfits, most likely timid and mournful, with a hunger for ‘do gooder’ justice and associated depression issues. [not that there's anything wrong with that, after all Jesus is awesome!].
I’d never thought about it that way before, but that brings me to my central question.
Is greatness great?
More importantly how does this apply to the seeming paradox that exists between Christianity and Objective Rationalism in all it’s intellectual and practical forms.
Peculiarly I developed something of an obsession for all things ‘Napoleon’ in my early years of university. This waned in the years that followed, but there was something compelling about a seeming nobody coming from nowhere to achieve greatness in the dusty pages of history. [Note: Napoleon's arrest of the pope was my favorite part of that particular story! Audaciously ambitious! if you will 
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Looking further through history you have Charlemagne an excellent exponent of ‘Catholic power’ along with the Hellenist and Roman achievements that tie right back to Persian, Babylonian and even Egyptian conceptions of conquest and splendor.
The greatness of this achievement roamed across architecture, mathematics, history, economics, literature, law, art, medicine, finance as well as politics, philosophy and military strategy.
It is in this context, I find myself wondering whether there is a happy, culturally acceptable medium between ambition and a corrective desire to be ‘meek’ in the biblical context.
What would the world have been like if the great architects and builders of our age and ages past decided to play it meek and be writers or musicians instead of building the iconic structures that shape Western identity today?
Would Michelangelo have been happier to drop the paint brush and sculptors stance for a life of grape growing and wine making in southern Italy because he’d dreamt of days of toil in the sun during his schooldays?
What if Sydney Harbor Bridge Architect Thomas S. Tait had of decided to give up half way through that great Australasian achievement and move to Switzerland to pursue his passion for skiing. Assuming of-cause he had aforesaid passion. Australia’s conception of itself would be completely different!
So again is Greatness Great?
Are we defined not just by our achievement and setbacks but also the firey ambition that catalyzes that drive in the first place?
Perhaps we need to look at this in another way.
The biblical history of the Early Christian Church was steeped in ambitious proselytizing. This was ground level stuff because it fit within the Pentecostal context and shifted the world to the advancement and glory of the Kingdom of God. See (Acts 1).
Where would we be with out this ambitiousness? If the Apostles had decided to shut up shop and go back to the fishing business because they were worried about their retirement. It really would have shifted history.
Perhaps there is greatness to be found in both spiritual and worldly things. We just need to put it in the right context and acknowledge individual weakness from the beginning. It might even prevent war!
*That’s my two cents anyway*
