‘What Will You Do With Your One Life?’

When I was 37, I sat across from a young man named Miguel in the dusty streets of Tampico, Mexico. He showed me the scar on his stomach where someone had stabbed him. He was just a teenager. He asked me, “What am I supposed to do with my life now?” He had narrowly escaped death, but had no roadmap for life.

I didn’t have the answers then. I only knew that his life mattered—and that mine needed to reflect that truth. That moment haunted me, shaped me, and became one of the many inflection points that drew me into a different kind of ambition—one that doesn’t settle for comfort but reaches for legacy. One that Rutger Bregman calls Moral Ambition.

A Different Kind of Ambition

Bregman’s book Moral Ambition speaks to those who, like Miguel, are asking, “What should I do with my life?” But it also speaks to those of us with enough privilege to forget that question, or avoid it altogether. He invites us to aim our talents not at accruing titles or trophies, but at solving the world’s greatest problems.

It’s the same holy disruption I’ve written about for years—the moment when you realize life is not about safety. It’s about obedience. It’s about listening to God’s whisper in the quiet: “Will you follow me to where it hurts?”

Why This Matters

Bregman’s vision isn’t just inspirational—it’s uncomfortably practical. He suggests the best and brightest should tackle climate change, global poverty, preventable disease. Not out of guilt, but because these are the most strategic problems we can solve with a life well spent.

In Revolution of a Broken Heart, I wrote that “Breaking your heart enables God to reshape it to look like His own.” This is what Moral Ambition calls us to—a reshaping of what we think ambition should look like. Not the ambition to climb, but the ambition to serve. Not to be noticed, but to be poured out.

It’s Not Naïve—It’s Necessary

The world doesn’t need more Christian professionals who quietly disappear into boardrooms while their God-given fire dims. It needs risk-takers. Builders. Listeners. People willing to ask not “What job will make me successful?” but “What pain am I called to enter into?”

That’s the shift Bregman calls for. And it echoes the cry of The Art of Listening Prayer: If we slow down long enough to ask God the right questions, He will often lead us into unexpected, even dangerous places. But always meaningful ones.

Align Your Career With Your Conscience

Moral Ambition isn’t just theory. It’s a map. Bregman shows how to align your career with your conscience, how to take small steps toward massive change, how to move from inertia to impact. It’s like a compass for those who sense they’re called to more but don’t know where to begin.

He doesn’t sugarcoat the cost. Like any calling worth chasing, it will require surrender. But the cost of not surrendering is greater still. Talk to people who are nearing death and you’ll find, this is their greatest regret.

Final Thoughts

Young or old, you’re standing at a crossroads. You can spend your days accumulating things that will one day rot, or you can spend them investing in the eternal. Rutger Bregman offers a framework for choosing the latter. If you’re brave enough to listen, it just might change your life.

And if you’re like Miguel, still wondering what to do with your one life, maybe this book is God’s way of starting the conversation.

“The real measure of success lies not in what we accumulate, but in what we contribute.” – Rutger Bregman

What will you do with your one life?

Take the Next Step
📖 Buy Moral Ambition
🌍 Learn more about the World’s 25 Greatest Problems
📝 Or simply start here: journal your answer to the question, “What problem in the world most breaks your heart—and what if that’s exactly where you’re called to serve?”