#12 Strength, Security and Serenity for YOU in 2002! Part II (16/02/02)

The Message

By Dr. Robert H. Schuller

My son and I are delivering a series of messages based on the great truths from the Psalms in the Holy Bible designed to give you strength, security and serenity. All human beings on planet earth want these three basic needs for their daily living. And the Psalms hold the key. This is where you can tap into the strength to go on when horrific things happen to you and to yours. You have security inside so that you will not become totally disenfranchised from humanity by the frustrations, the pain and the hurt. You can feel inwardly secure anyway. And finally, serenity is possible even when there is more stress today than ever before.

When I see what's happened in my lifetime in the discoveries of medicine, in human dynamics and psychology, and, of course, the technical accomplishments - the computer age, etc. - I keep asking myself, "What can we possibly do that will be enlightening or a major breakthrough in the next 50 or 100 or 500 years ... or in the next 1000 years?" What challenges can we possibly have? A cure for cancer? I think that will happen in the next ten years. A cure for AIDS? I think that will also happen in the next ten years. What can you possibly imagine that would be the greatest discovery, achievement, advancement or invention that still has not been discovered or even imagined? Now I suggest that it would be if the human being could discover how to be human. We haven't discovered that yet.

Discover How to be Truly Human

What is it like to be truly human? Do you and I know? We still insult people. We still slap people verbally, if not physically. We still humiliate people. Do we know how we can become human and not barbaric? We still kill and fight and have war. We pay the penalty. First, we lack the strength to deal with life's normal frustrations. And, deeper than that, we don't have the inner security that we need. We worry. We're anxious and afraid. Then defensively we become jealous of others. Strength, security and then serenity. Serenity? Don't talk to me about serenity. Talk to me about stress - that's where I live. That's what I hear. To be human we must learn how to be human through our weakness, gain strength through our insecurities and become secure and confident and relaxed in our persons. And then, finally, to become composed in times of enormous stress.

Do you know what you really want in life?

I was rereading a book I wrote with the title: "Self Love, The Dynamic Force of Success." In the opening chapter I quote a paragraph of Dr. Robert Ardrey: "I feel a restiveness in man, a dissatisfaction of universal sort. The average human being, as I judge it, is uneasy. He's like a man who's hungry, gets up at night, opens the refrigerator door, doesn't exactly see what he wants because he doesn't know what he wants. He closes the door and goes back to bed."

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Not knowing what we really want, we go through life with a strange inner hunger, unsatisfied. It's something like having a holiday without knowing exactly what you're going to do, where you want to go or how you want to spend the day. And when you finally decide what you want to do and where you'd like to go, it's too late.

Do you know what you really want in life? I discussed that through the years with Viktor Frankl before he died. I consider him to be the leading psychiatrist of the 20th century. And he taught me that Freud said it was "pleasure" which is a very strong drive. And Adler said, " we want power and control," also a very strong drive. But Viktor Frankl said, "I believe what we really want in life is meaning."

In my private office Frankl and I, for three hours, challenged the question ... Why is meaning so important? Why do people want power and control? Why do people think pleasure is what they really want and they go to the twinkling lights of Las Vegas or wherever?

And after three hours together I challenged Dr. Frankl that what we want most of all is self-respect, self-esteem, dignity, and healthy pride. And without that we're so bored we go after pleasure, or we feel dissatisfied so we try power and control and the ego take over. Without self-respect and dignity life loses its meaning.

The single deepest need in human existence is self-respect, self-esteem, honor and glory in personhood.

Why aren't we more human? Read Psalm 8:
"When I consider the heavens, O God, why do You even consider me, a human? . . . You have made me a little lower than the angels and You have crowned me with glory and honor. And You have made me to have dominion over the works of Your hands!"

Wow! What's wrong? We lost the crown. It got knocked off and we're born without a crown on our head but as humans we still have royal blood in our veins! That gives us dignity, self-esteem, self-respect, honor and glory. We didn't just evolve ... we were designed and created by God.

The human being is the only creature on planet earth created to know glory and honor.

To be human means you and I need glory. You and I need honor. You and I need dignity. You and I need a healthy pride. You and I need a reverence for self.

The Christian faith often times has not given a true and honest portrait of this truth. Too often the emphasis is that pride is always a sin. But I don't think it is a sin when I'm proud of this church, I'm proud of my friends, I'm proud of this ministry. I'm proud of who I am. I am not ashamed. Be proud of who you are.

And if you don't have self-esteem, you will buy the cheap counterfeit, which is called egotism. And the cheap counterfeits will get you in trouble. Without self-esteem, psychologically you'll become sick.

You know I wrote the premier book on self-esteem theology over 30 years ago. And so during the past decades I've been told that I was only feeding self-conceit in humanity. That's not true. Self-esteem is not self-conceit. Self-conceit is objectionable ... and even worse is self-contempt. Self-contempt is ruinous, it not only ruins you, it ruins your family, your friends, and it ruins society around you. And you'll come to an end of your life without the glory and the honor that you want.

You have the spark of God in You

And so what do we really want in life. We want a sense of self-acceptance, self worth and self-value. And God has given that spark in every human being. Every person ... disabled, mentally disabled, or emotionally disabled ... has the spark of God within them. It's called the human soul and it makes even the most limited and disabled person a beautiful person. Anybody can do something wonderful for God.

The Pope has invited me to join spiritual leaders from around the world in Assisi where we will pray for peace. And I'm hoping that somehow maybe we'll begin to realize the most important thing we need to learn is how to be truly human to stop insulting people, stop putting people down. We must stop undervaluing people, for it is the single most destructive sin in society.

Now there is salvation found in a positive belief in God and in Jesus Christ. There is nothing offered to the world by secularism that can touch the human heart and make the human being human. Always the roots are religious.

"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27)

There are human values that only enter into the human personality through spiritual roots. And what is the most important thing ... that we learn God created us differently from all of the creatures. We are made in the image of God. What does that mean? It means we can think and be liberated, hopefully free from religious prejudices. Through faith we can begin to see that as humans we become emotionally healthy persons when we learn to accept ourselves and believe in ourselves.

Jim Nicholson is a fraternity brother of mine in the Horatio Alger Association. Nicholson has just been appointed Ambassador to Rome by the President of the United States. He is an amazing person. He was born only a few miles from where I was born in Iowa. I was born in poverty, but not as poor as he. My father was a good workman, his father was an alcoholic. And they couldn't even afford to rent a home. But around those Iowa farms, there were some abandoned shacks that were empty because they were used for migrant workers who came only in harvest time. That's where Jim Nicholson was born and raised. He was teased in school because he did not have matching shoes. That's poverty! Now tell me how do people who are born in the depth of poverty get to the top?

Even though kids would tease him because his shoes didn't match, Jim would come home and his mother, alone with the kids and not knowing where their alcoholic father was, would say to her boys, "You can do anything you want to. You can be anybody you want to be. Don't let anybody tease you." She was a devoted believer in God. And she got her self-esteem drive from the Holy Bible and from her church. When her oldest son heard about a school called West Point, he wanted to go there. With her strong faith in God, said, "Oh, you can! You can! You can! You can!" But when he was accepted at West Point, they didn't have the money to buy the railroad ticket to the school. So his younger brother, Jim, worked part time doing all kinds of jobs to make enough money to send his brother to West Point.

You are created in the image of God.

To young people, I want you to know that you can be what you want to be. You are created in the image of God. Look at the starry heavens ... look at the mountains ... look at the universe and look into space. There is nothing that God has ever created that surpasses or matches His creation of what is called the human soul. And you have that! Of all the animals, you can think! You can make decisions. Don't be bombarded with negative thoughts, about yourself and others. Make a decision to be somebody beautiful for God. You may see yourself as very lowly, humble, obscure and consider yourself not a very valued member of the human race. But you still have the spark of God in you. Ignite it! Meet Jesus Christ. He will touch you. He waits to bless you. And He will tell you what a great person you can be in your daily life.

God has crowned you with glory and honor

You don't need to be rich. You don't need to become powerful. You don't need to become an ambassador. But you can be a representative of Jesus Christ and then you are truly human! Let Jesus Christ touch you and save you from your sins. Then you'll realize what a beautiful person you are and you'll have an inner feeling of self-respect, self-esteem and nobility.

On January 8 there was this little prayer in our prayer book, God's Minute IV: "God, I need not be ashamed of who I am, for You have crowned me with glory and honor, so today, I shall stand taller, stronger and more confident than ever before. Amen.