Self-Esteem? Or self-centred?

This is a post from my friend's blog - I found it so refreshing I thought I'd re-post it in full -

"This is the first time I've heard someone say that the concept of self esteem is self-centred." - my tutor.

It's not very fun being the one dissenting opinion in a class that rates self-esteem highly. "Just believe in yourself." "Have faith in yourself otherwise no one will."

"I guess I just don't want my students to focus on themselves. I want them to look outside of themselves and put others first. I don't want them to give themselves a pat on the back for being special and unique. That's not gonna hold up when they hit a major crisis."

It's not that I want my students to look down on themselves. In fact, I don't want them to be looking at themselves at all. When I look at what's inside of me, I feel like despairing. There's so much that needs work and so much that is desperately far from what it should be. So I don't look in. I look up—at the one who is transforming me to be more like himself. When you can gaze at something so beautiful, why focus on the sin within?

Do people go to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem? Probably not. This is, at least, a hint that the deepest joys in life come not from savoring the self, but from seeing splendor. And in the end even the Grand Canyon will not do. We were made to enjoy God... In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of his majesty. 

John Piper, The Goal of God's Love

A part of me aches for people to see this. You are not the centre of God's plan. God is. Do you know how unbelievably liberating this is? To know that you do not carry the weight of God's plan for your life? God does. And he will bring it to completion, with or without your self motivational speeches. Is his plan good? Maybe not in the eyes of this twisted world. But, beloved, he loves you. Nothing will come to you that he has not first suffered. You may not experience earthly comfort, but you will know his love. Can such a thing be construed as sacrifice? Or undeserved grace?

May the love of Jesus fill me, 
As the waters fill the sea; 
Him exalting, self abasing, 
This is victory