Shoot for the moon, they say, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.
I‘m not so sure. I’m not denying it would be a thrill to take a walk on the moon, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I guess I like oxygen too much, and trees and water and birds. And I have absolutely no interest in landing among the stars, either. Do you know how hot those things are?
I know, I know, it’s metaphorical. No one wants to land on a literal star, they’d just like to be a star, or at least hang out with them in their exclusive clubs and private yachts. The saying just means dream big, have ambitions, and what’s wrong with that? Nothing.
It would definitely be a thrill to take a walk on the moon, or even on a red carpet, but I’d rather not live in either of those rarified atmospheres. I’m happy down here on Earth where I don’t have to breathe all that pressurised air. That’s why I’m not building a rocket. I’m tending a garden.
The Earth is a garden, right here. The moon is a rock, far away. It is exciting and unique, absolutely, but it is also cold, dead, and distant. The Earth is close and familiar, and like anything we already have, we take it for granted. But look again and you’ll see that the Earth really is a garden, bursting with more life than we can measure or classify, even after thousands of years of trying. If the metaphor of “shooting for the moon” means leaving the life I know behind for something more unique—something like piles of cold cash, or lofty titles, or impersonal applause—I’ll pass. I’m more interested in shooting for the Earth, where life grows freely, even if it is close and familiar and messy.
The life I have right here and now might be common and unexceptional (like most of the things that grow on this planet) but it is life. And there are lives all around me as well—lives of other people God loves and crafted in his own image. I do not want to use the power of my ambitions to gain what is cold and empty (even if it’s unique) at the cost of what is precious and alive (even if it’s ordinary). If I’m going to shoot for something, I’d like it to be something living and beautiful, and I don’t care at all how common it is. What a privilege it is to live on a planet like ours among so many living, thinking, feeling, relating images of God! What a privilege it is to be able to have a hand in tending the life in and around me and helping it become what God made it to be!
I’m sure that fame and fortune and fabulous success are exciting, too, and there’s nothing at all wrong with having them. I’m still not going to aim my ambitions at them. They might be great, but on their own they are cold substitutes for living, breathing people, and the warmth of strong relationships. Some people can have it all at once, and I’m glad for them, but when it comes to priorities my main goal for life is not to launch myself like a rocket away from life as I know it into the stratosphere of success and notoriety. My ambition is closer to the ground—I want to tend and grow the life God put in me and around me right here where I am, in the very best ways I can.
I’m shooting for the Earth. It’s harder to miss, and I don’t mind if my hands get dirty, landing in the garden.
Would you like to think more about ambition, success, and what matters most? The ebook version of my book Dream Small is available for free (this month only) from The Good Book Company. You can get it through these links:
https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/free-ebook
https://www.thegoodbook.com/free-ebook
The hard copy is also available right now at a great price from Alistair Begg’s Truth For Life ministry, or as a thank you to those who make a donation:
https://www.truthforlife.org/store/products/books-and-booklets/dream-small/
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