Writer Lydia Jenkins reflects on why Zendaya’s extraordinary career success prompted her to question her own ambitions. Drawing on Scripture and a timely devotional, she explores the difference between chasing worldly success and pursuing the God-given calling he places on our lives.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been to the cinema a lot this year. From the underwhelming return of The Devil Wears Prada (sorry, it wasn’t for me) to Jessie and Woody gracing our screens once again, it’s been a stellar year for the box office so far.
But no one has dominated the movie world quite like Zendaya and her husband, Tom Holland. I referred to July as “their” month, with the back-to-back releases of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day; both fantastic films with plenty to unpack from a Christian worldview, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
You may have seen the articles published recently about the couple’s box office records, with Zendaya becoming the highest-grossing actor of 2026
You may have seen the articles published recently about the couple’s box office records, with Zendaya becoming the highest-grossing actor of 2026 (go on, girl). Her film with Robert Pattinson, The Drama, and her roles as Athena and MJ have brought in more than $2 billion worldwide. Plus, with Dune: Part Three coming out in December, Zendaya is reaching extraordinary levels of success.
Where am I going with this? Well, here comes a confession. Zendaya is 29 years old, just a year younger than me, and occasionally I’m hit by an overwhelming sense of inferiority. I wonder whether I’ll ever amount to anything quite as spectacular. Then, as a Christian, Philippians 2:3 rings in my ears and I tell myself it’s OK because I shouldn’t be ambitious anyway. But is that true?
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I’m not aspiring to be a Hollywood actress, but I am building my own business. I’ve been leaning heavily on God for its direction, and the vision he has given me feels big. Is that selfish ambition, or is there such a thing as godly ambition that we should allow ourselves to embrace?
In a wonderful act of God’s grace, I picked up Proving Ground by Graham Hooper this week. It’s a fantastic book featuring “40 reflections on growing faith at work”, and the third reflection is entitled Ambition.
READ MORE: The faithful heart of The Odyssey
Graham explores the difference between bad ambition and good ambition. Drawing on biblical stories and Scripture, he makes a point that struck me deeply. Referring to Romans 12:2, he writes that bad ambition is characterised by “conformity to the world’s standards” and I am so guilty of this. We can look at Zendaya’s triumph and think, That’s the benchmark we should all be aiming for.
There’s a real danger in measuring what begins as godly ambition by the world’s definition of success.
There’s a real danger in measuring what begins as godly ambition by the world’s definition of success. Graham argues that good ambition is defined by “passion, motivation and creative energy to complete a given task”, pursued with both confidence and humility, recognising that it is all part of a much bigger picture. Or, to put it another way, it isn’t all about you.
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God may give us a grand vision, one that borders on the impossible, but it’s vital that we don’t claim it as our own. Instead, we must continually discern what his purpose was in giving it to us in the first place. I’ve often become so caught up in pursuing excellence that I’ve lost sight of the godly purpose behind what I’m doing.
The Lord is teaching me (we’re still working on it) to ask about his agenda for every task. “OK, what’s the agenda? What are we trying to achieve?” His answer is always better than the success-driven rabbit holes I can find myself disappearing down, but that doesn’t mean he is stifling ambition.
I’m not talking about matching the meteoric success of Zendaya’s creative career. Whatever your ambition may be, if your heart is aligned with God’s glory and his guidance above your own, then perhaps the only question left is: Why not?
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3–4 (NIV)
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