Welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

I'm Tom Felton, and I called our reading, Shooting Ourselves in the Foot.

In 2021, an engineer with the ambition to shoot an arrow farther than anyone in history took

aim at the record of 2,028 feet.

While lying on his back on a salt flat, he drew back the bowstring of his personally designed

footbow and prepared to launch the projectile to what he hoped would be a new record

distance of more than a

mile, 5,280 feet. Taking a deep breath, he let the arrow fly. It didn't travel a mile and, in fact,

it traveled less than a foot, launching into his foot and causing considerable damage.

Ouch!

Sometimes we can figuratively shoot ourselves in the foot with misguided ambition.

James and John knew what it meant to ambitiously seek something good, but for the wrong reasons.

In Mark chapter 10, they asked Jesus to let one of us sit at your right

and the other at your left in your glory. In Matthew chapter 19, Jesus had told the disciples that they

would sit on the 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel, so it's easy to see why they made this request. The problem?

They were selfishly seeking their own lofty position and power in Christ's glory.

Jesus told them that their ambition was misplaced and that whoever wants to become great among you

must be your servant.

As we aim to do good and great things for Christ,

may we seek his wisdom and direction,

humbly serving others as he did so well.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Mark, chapter 10, verses 35 through 45.

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