I just received a forwarded CNN article (click here to read it). You will have to read the article in order to make sense of my entry.
Sometimes there are some redeeming factors when a secular news media confirms something that we have been saying for some time now.
This brings us to the issue of the Church today. We, the Church have bought into this self-help and self-esteem mantra for the last 10-15 years and we are now seeing the affects of it. We have more self-centered people in the church today than ever before (myself included).
Please don’t misunderstand me. I think a lot of the struggles of a Christian are rooted in a fault perspective of one’s self. So I am not against people having a healthy perspective of themselves. But I don’t think a health biblical perspective of oneself is the same as the “self-esteem” that the world talks about.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines, “self-esteem” as “pride in oneself; self-respect.” As a Christian, we are constantly told in the Bible to “humble” ourselves. Therefore, any self-respect comes because of knowing who we are in Christ, not because we take pride in ourselves.
But what do we do with college students who have the highest NPI levels in 25 years (1982 is when this test was first introduced). This is the challenge for the church today!
We can cave in to the trends of society and culture or we have to go against the cultural current. In fact, this is how Christianity took off in the 1st century. They had a message that was so counter-cultural. It went against the standard of that time. But there was a cost – martyrdom, persecution, suffering, etc).
I think our narcissistic side would always settle for the path of least resistance – comfortability is the name of the game. Some would say, “it is better not to rock the boat.”
But the Gospel is a boat rocker!
Read through the Gospels and see how many times Jesus rocked the boat. I am wondering if Jesus did it so that we will know if we can really swim or not.