In the Biblical story of the origin of evil, Lucifer the most beautiful of all the angels, develops an ego problem.  He forgets that he was created, and he forgets that God is almighty.  He gets very full of himself, and spend a lot of time admiring himself in the mirror.  Soon he starts to resent God’s authority, and decides that he is so wonderful that Lucifer and not God should be running things.  You will notice that evil does not originate in a low self-esteem problem.  Evil originates in a state of extremely high self-esteem.

        Some social psychologists have suggested that if only we could make people feel better about themselves, that all bad behavior would just evaporate.  Some of our schools have therefore instituted changes to promote "self-esteem" for all the children.  Whatever a child does, no matter how anti-social or stupid, must be praised on some ground or other.  "Wow, Billy, that was a nice gun you brought to school, and you certainly are a good shot."  I heard that several school systems have eliminated the "valedictorian" speech because it makes other students "feel bad about themselves."  It’s as if the ultimate goal of life is just to "feel good about yourself."  As long as we get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, "There goes a wonderful person," these authorities seem to think everything will be alright.

        There is so much obviously wrong with this idea that it’s hard to know where to start.  First, the encounter with Jesus Christ which saves us must begin in the recognition of our own failure and limitation.  It begins in humility.  Humility is the opposite of high self-esteem. It begins in "giving it all up" to God, which is the opposite of pride.  Becoming a Christian begins in submission which is the opposite of rebellion.

        Pride almost always leads to rebellion.  We live in a rebellious culture.  Our culture fights authority and promotes rebellion. Our media portrays suicide bombers as "freedom fighters."  Our symbols of authority are ridiculed and sometimes destroyed.  If we are not careful, we too become rebellious, and more concerned about our rights than our responsibilities.  Our culture clearly values Lucifer’s rebellious outlook than it values God’s established authority.

        The fact is that self-esteem is a fleeting and fraudulent goal.  A focus on the well-being of others through Christian action is a better goal.  Humility and a more realistic view of self is going to produce better results for an individual and for society than a narcissistic self-focus.

        As a character in a film once said, "Perhaps your low self esteem is just good common sense."  We do a lot of things that deserve no credit, and we may have good reason to feel ashamed and humiliated.  When other people do things better than we do (like valedictorians) we should be congratulating them on the hard work it took to achieve, and thinking about how we can do better ourselves.  Achievers should be inspirations, not objects of envy, and opportunities for self-pity.