When A Good Self-Esteem Is Bad

Okay, I'm a USC grad, so I can't help but pay a lot of attention when my alma mater is playing Ohio State. Did you see the game? Wow. 35-3. We looked good. See the lonely and flying OSU helmet to the left? It alone survived its' owners burial.

Remember back a few years ago when so much was about having a good self-esteem? The teaching made it big time in the church--if you didn't have a good one, you were virtually doomed. Well, it always bugged me because almost invariably it had no basis in actual, literal Christianity. While we in the church endlessly taught about how important it was to help our children and others to feel good about themselves, our actual identity in Christ lay languishing in scripture, buried in a mountain of extra-biblical babble.

If our opinion of ourselves isn't biblically accurate, then it isn't true and it injures us. And frankly, who we are in and through Christ is far better than what we were offering some years ago. Self opinion is, indeed, vital, and when ours matches up with what God thinks is true of us, then the glory of God is made visible to us and the angels rejoice.

All that to say that here's a guy who needs a really big lesson, one even bigger than tonight's so he can flee the repeated injury of a poorly inflated self estimation. It's probably going to be a long season for him.

This from the Associated Press tonight:

"In the first game between the storied programs since 1990, USC won its sixth straight against Ohio State and eighth in a row against the Big Ten. Ohio State gained only 35 yards in the second half. Buckeyes QB Todd Boeckman threw for just 84 yards and had two interceptions. This was Ohio State's worst loss since 1994 and its worst non-conference loss since 1989 at USC. It was the first time the Buckeyes were held without a touchdown since 1996 against Michigan. OSU quarterbacks were sacked 5 times."

And in the “Somebody pop that boy’s self-esteem bubble” category, Terrelle Pryor, freshman and second-string quarterback gets the #1 ranking by saying, "Tough team, and we did not execute very well at all. We did not pick up their blitzes very well. Tonight, we beat ourselves. I still feel like we have the best defense in the country."

He’ll need to stay in college a while longer. . .and pass his classes.