Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing
A witty but oxymoronic T-shirt quip reads: “I’m humble and proud of it.”
That would be a profound theological statement, yet less witty, if it read: “I’m proud to be me, and humbled before him who made me to be me.”
This counterpoint simply articulates the truth that self-esteem can be either egocentric or theocentric; that is, either prideful or humble before God.
Proper self-esteem acknowledges one’s true worth, but as a God-given gift; improper self-esteem claims one’s self-value, but ignores its source. “What do you have that you did not receive?” asks Paul (1 Cor 4:7). Peter tells us how to maintain our awareness of that linkage: “Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand” (1 Pt 5:6, emphasis mine). The psalmist, awed by the God-given worth of each person, could easily humble himself before the Lord: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps 8:4-5).
Not too many years ago, it was a social disgrace, especially in a small, gossip-infected Tennessee town, to be known as an illegitimate child, living in a single-parent home, not knowing who or where one’s father was. Such was the situation that brought a young lad, Ben Hooper, to the brink of despair with a crippling inferiority complex that resulted from his schoolmates cruelly taunting him with unrepeatable names.
One Sunday, when he was about twelve years old, he tried, as usual, to slip out of a church service just before the closing prayer, to avoid all social contact. Just as he got to the door, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder, the hand of an associate minister, who glared at him menacingly as he confronted him with the question that Ben feared the most.
“Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?” the preacher asked as he studied his face intently. Then the minister broke out into a warm smile. “Wait a minute. I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a child of God.” With that, he slapped the lad across the rump and said, “Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance as a member of God’s own family. Go claim it!”
That was the single most important remark in the entire life of Ben Hooper. It was the first time he had felt a real sense of worth, and it changed his life forever. He applied himself to his studies with enthusiasm and became what no one thought an illegitimate person could become--a popular governor of the state of Tennessee--and was later re-elected to that same office. The big turnaround in his life was the sudden and overwhelming realization that he was loved by God as his precious child, and had been chosen by God to “inherit the kingdom” (see Mt 25:34). This truth became enormously meaningful and personally significant to him when he read the passage from Revelation 21:7: “He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
We all have that awesome inheritance, and the Lord warmly invites us, as the encouraging minister urged Ben Hooper, to “go and claim it.” His invitation to us is compelling for those who know they are “his very own” (Ti 2:14, for “we are God’s children” (Rom 8:16), having been fashioned “in the image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11:7), and he finds his own lovable resemblance in each one of us.
Again and again, God’s Word reminds us of our real value in his eyes: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness” (Jer 31:3). The word “drawn” in Hebrew understanding implies a sustained close befriending love. David’s plea for God to “continue to love” (Ps 36:10) and for his love to be “unfailing” (Ps 6:4) bears the Hebrew connotation of an ongoing, ever-reliable love that is a warm, deep, and passionate--a very close and affectionate attraction of God for each of us. The depth of this parental love burgeons forth in one translation of Hosea 11:4: “I have drawn [snuggled] you to myself and nuzzled you to my cheek, as a mother cuddles her child.” That close individualized love for each one of us, because it is infinite, exceeds our most uninhibited imagining, for only God can love infinitely. This love for you and for me continues day and night, whether we are awake or asleep, working or relaxing, praying or sinning. Who could lack self-esteem while opening himself to absorbing that kind of intimate love?
Precisely in the act of absorbing that love we are practicing the virtue of trust. That simple truth is encrusted in this morsel of food for thought: If we have trusted the Lord to make us lovable, can we not trust him to love us?
This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.