Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

efits of any virtue, without taking the time to build the virtue through practice, will produce disappointingly minimal and short-lived results. 43 An analogy I have found useful in describing the effort needed for transformation to occur is that ‘learning the language of God’s new world’, as Wright calls it, takes as much effort and intentionality as learning any language would . 44 Old habits and ways of thinking need to change, and change requires intentional choice. Discipleship is quite simply extended training in being dispossessed. To become followers of Jesus means that we must, like him, be dispossessed of all that we think gives us power over our own lives and the lives of others. Unless we learn to relinquish our presumption that we can ensure the significance of our lives, we are not capable of the peace of God’s kingdom . 45 Young adults need guidance in navigating the subtle difference between ambition toward godliness and character transformation, and ambition toward self-serving ends. Like desire, ambition is hard-wired in us particularly to enthuse our search for God and motivate us toward right relations with others: The ambition God invites us to is a cross-shaped ambition: to embrace our inability to “have it all” so that he may be our all. Likewise, the contentment to which God invites us is a cross-shaped contentment: to choose to say “thy will be done,” to accept our constraints, because it is often through human weakness that God most clearly displays his power and glory . 46 Ambition in a consumer culture can degenerate into a constant search for novelty and self-advancement. Consumerism has commuted ambitious avarice from a vice to a virtue, without questioning how, or at whose expense, some get ahead. Contentment, on the other hand, turns from a virtue to a vice — a contented person is likely a slacker who settles for second-rate. The constant arousal of new desires circumvents any need to learn patience and commitment. A lack of time for reflection prevents thoughtfully planning for significant life change. Feelings of thankfulness, contentment, 43 Wright, After You Believe, pp. 20, 57. 44 Ibid, p.69. 45 Hauerwas, Peaceable Kingdom , p. 86. 46 Katelyn Beaty, ‘Hold on to Your Ambition’, Christianity Today 60:6 (July/August 2016), 86-90 (p. 90). 54 Journal of European Baptist Studies 17:1 (2017) disappointment, trust, and achievement are all jettisoned in favour of instant gratification. In helping members of our congregation imagine what they have not experienced, that is, the benefit of patient, focused transformation by the power of the Spirit, I have found this well-known quotation from C. S. Lewis of help: Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward, and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with dr