Friday, April 4, 2008

Rich Mullins on Self-Esteem

The late, great Rich Mullins is a lot more poetic than Mark Driscoll, who just says that self-esteem is the sin that caused the fall of mankind. :-)

Mullins:
"And especially in a day when so much emphasis and so much pressure is put on us to esteem ourselves. I don’t know how anyone can wake up with morning breath and pillow head and feel any self-esteem. That is not the sort of thing that I want to put my faith in. And in the church—it’s unbelievable to me that this whole foolishness about esteeming yourself has leaked into the church. I kinda go, ‘Christ didn’t ask us to esteem ourselves.'

I think if [we] would have asked, I think He would probably say, 'Look, buddy, you’d be lucky if you could forget yourself. If you could lose yourself, you’d be luckier than if you found yourself.' It would be wonderful if you knew the names of the trees between your house and where you work, between your house and your church. If you knew that was a tulip tree and that was a redbud. It would be great if you knew the names of the constellations. It would be great if you knew something about your neighbors. It would be a lucky thing for you if you forgot yourself, if you lost yourself."

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That would have been a perfect quote/Illustration for the sermon I preached last Sunday from 2 Corinthians 5 on how self-esteem is not the goal. Our confidence must be in Christ.

I loved Rich. I know his family and they are great people and continue to carry on his ministry.

Great post

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with self-esteem? What do people mean by it? If it's an idol, sure, have nothing to do with it. If it's God realigning your understanding in Him, as one his own, why deny the work of the Holy Spirit.

A lot of the argument boils down to semantics. I can see both sides, depending on definition and interpretation...