The Economics of Self Worth - Part 1

I have a collection of baseball cards that I’ve had since I was about nine. Recently, however, I’ve began to notice some peculiar things about them. It seems that my Leo Durocher card thinks he’s worth a whole lot more than the rest of the cards (after all, he was ranked fifth all-time among managers!) and he never misses an opportunity to let all the other “player” cards know it.

Meanwhile, Willie Mays constantly compares himself to the other cards and imagines that he’s worth much less than Don Sutton or Pete Rose, because he has a bent corner (whereas Don and Pete are in pristine condition). And then there’s poor Carl Yastrzemski, who’s become so fed up with Leo’s arrogant attitude that he decided to improve his self esteem with positive affirmations. So, each morning and evening, he stares at himself in the mirror and says things like, “I am an important and valuable card with no bent corners, and I deserve to feel good about myself. I am worth at least $200!” Strangely enough, Carl has begun to believe this about himself and, as a result, has been standing up to Leo’s verbal bullying. It would seem that Carl now has “positive self-esteem.”

Well, I finally got fed up with the situation and decided to settle the matter once and for all, so I took the whole set down to a local card collectible shop. The kid behind the counter opened a catalog that told me exactly what each card was worth.

Poor Carl was devastated to find out that, in spite of telling himself he was worth “at least $200,” he was only worth $29.95. (The only consultation was that Leo was worth even less!) Bent-corner Willie turned out to be the most valuable card in the bunch, worth nearly $200! But, sadly, it was too late, for he’d spent the past 40 years suffering from “low self esteem.” Alas, the damage had already been done.

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The story you’ve just read is mostly fiction. Yes, I do own a baseball card collection (including a 1969 Willie Mays with a bent corner); but, no, I am not hallucinating – my cards are not talking to one another or bickering over who’s worth more.

Perhaps you’ve already seen through my thinly-veiled parable. Just like I watched and marveled as my card collection agonized and bickered about their self-worth, so must God look down from heaven and do the same with us.

In the end, it didn’t matter that my Carl Yastrzemski card told himself he was worth “at least $200” or even that he believed it – because believing a lie doesn’t make it true. The bottom line was that, when I sold him off, he was worth less than 30 dollars. Likewise, believing that he was worth far less than the others didn’t change the fact that bent-corner Willie was actually worth a lot more. You see, both Willie and Carl had an inaccurate estimation of their own worth, and they lived their lives based on that lie.

In my upcoming posts, I’m about to tackle the rather complex topic of self-esteem and self-worth and look at whether or not it has a place in the body of Christ. Christian author and psychologist Dr. James Dobson has clearly embraced the concept. His book, The New Hide or Seek, is described on Amazon as providing “a new generation of parents with practical pointers for building self-esteem in their children.” Yet others in the body of Christ have harshly criticized his views, calling it “The Gospel of Self Esteem.” While I take issue with some of Dr. Dobson’s views, my intent is not to join their chorus, but to search for the truth – Biblically speaking, that is.

Stay tuned for Part 2…