TO BE SEEN

Bare with me today, this is definitely an unbound thought.

Recently I heard a program on the radio where there was a discussion about the recent discovery (past 40-50 years) of the term self-esteem.  The individual talking about it was discussing how embracing the need for self-esteem is in part responsible for the condition of our youth in the world.  She went on to say that this seems to be the root of the MySpace, Facebook and YouTube phenomenon.  The desire and the need to feed your Self-Esteem is masking itself with the need to been seen and heard. 

According to a Wikipedia definition, in psychology, self-esteem or self-worth includes a person’s subjective appraisal of himself or herself as intrinsically positive or negative to some degree. 

I agreed with a point she was making about our seemingly obsessive search for a positive self-esteem.  If you listen to your heart, isn’t there something that strikes you about esteeming yourself that is just not quite right?

In a book I’m reading the author states that evil’s primary objective is to destroy the light (God’s influence in things).  Evil’s secondary objective is to go unnoticed, so much so that you might not spot evil at work but once out of every 50 occurrences.

Just like most things Satan sets out to do he creates nothing but a cheap imitation of the original.  Take for instance God’s love to Satan’s lust, God’s anger to Satan’s Rage or God’s patience to Satan’s complacency.  Each of these are only slightly different than their counterparts, but in the end, one leads to glory and the other to death.

Self-esteem I think is one of those imitations of God’s creation.  It’s a slightly different slant on self-respect I think.  One leaves us feeling valuable and accepted when we look to God, while the other leads us to the complete opposite and ultimately needing to be heard and valued.  I think we all seek to be valued and accepted at times.  We are all human, we sin and fall short, essentially we are all “bad”, but in Christ we are forgiven and infinitely valuable. 

Self-esteem I think is something the world tells us we need.  I think God tells us that not only do we not need it but, that it is the opposite of what he wants to give us.  We don’t really want to be seen, we really want to be cradled by our Savior.

It only takes a slight movement off course to take us in the end,  hundreds of miles from our destination.