Life can quickly become all about us. Our ambitions are selfish and success-driven. Jesus redefines ambition and success as serving others. But can God really use me? My past, my age, my experiences and my choices disqualify me. Do we really understand how God truly sees us?

Selfish ambition and drive to succeed is all around us. It permeates every part of our culture and even our own families. But Jesus never condemns ambition or the drive to succeed. He simply changes the terms and redefines what ambition looks like in his kingdom. The drive to significance starts with service not authority.

There can be a lot of reasons why we might not feel ambitious. Age. Experience. Financial burdens. But sometimes the reasons might go deeper. Are you seeing some of the warning lights of low ambition in your life?

Remember those crazy dreams you had as a kid? You were going to be the next big football superstar or movie star or doctor. Yet as adults, having big dreams becomes something only a kid does. Or we discover the dark side to selfish ambition, getting used so that someone can get the big promotion. Or realizing how we selfishly treat people to get ahead. What is wrong with ambition? What if God wants us to dream big?

Living in community is one the hallmarks of the first church. All through the writings of the New Testament, we see the value of being in relationships with others. James finishes his letter showing the value of being in circles on The Walk.

Patience is a tough discipline to learn in a fast-paced world. We have all the information and media we could want literally in the palms of our hands. It doesn't take long to figure out that life isn't fair. How do we hold onto faith when we aren't seeing the results and the answers we want? We have to learn to be patient!

In our affluent society, the excesses of wealth are out in full display. As a result, we don't usually think of ourselves as rich, because there is always someone who has more. But the truth is, if we have more than we need, then we are rich. And as those who are rich, we have certain temptations that are specific to us.

Time is our most valuable asset. We wear watches, we glance at the clock so we don’t lose track of time. Yet there’s something more important than knowing what time it is . . . it’s knowing what to do with our time.

Conflict is a part of life. Put two people together and eventually there is bound to be trouble. Conflict with God is something that has a much different feel to it, yet it still centers around a common issue - our pride. James walks us through some action steps in order to deal with the conflict that affects our hearts and souls.

When it comes to relationships, the one constant we all deal with is conflict. Maybe the outer battles are a sign of an inner desire that are not being met. The conflict might not be as much about the other person as it is about our own hearts.