"There’s a strange paradox to our humanity.

The self-help feel-good-about-yourself people will tell you that you ARE good enough. You’re wonderful. Perfect. Amazing. Gifted. Talented.

But deep down you know something’s wrong.

That’s because something is wrong: It’s your sin.

All of us have memories of Eden, but will live east of there now.

Self-affirmation will only get you so far, and it will often lead to what Tim Elmore describes as high arrogance (I’m amazing!) and low-self esteem (and I’m so horribly flawed…).

This is where the Gospel rushes in. Paradoxically, we all carry within us the image of God and we are sinfully flawed. Sin isn’t just an action, it’s a condition.

And Jesus comes into our brokenness and not only saves us, but deeply restores us over time. The ancients called this process of being made new sanctification.

It really is quite bad. And it really is more amazing that any of us dreamed.

The key is not to lose sight of either. Most of us lose sight of one or the other truths, and that’s who we get lost."