1 Peter 5:5 “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”

Does the name “Stuart Smalley” sound familiar to you? He is a character that comedian Al Franken invented for a Saturday Night Live skit about 30 years ago. Stuart Smalley was the host of a mock self-help show called “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley.” The purpose was to help people develop better self-esteem. Stuart would look into the mirror and say, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.” It was all poking fun at the self-esteem movement.

Perhaps we laugh at Stewart a little nervously. Deep down inside we don’t feel so confident. We aren’t so certain of our worth. We would like to feel better about ourselves.

Here’s a radical approach to our self-esteem. What if, instead of trying to convince ourselves of our value, we just gave up on it? We let it go? We ignored it?

What if we embraced our weaknesses, our oddities, our quirks? What if we accepted that, in some things, we are less gifted, even, dare we say, inferior? What if we befriended our reality like that?

I’m not saying that we should deny the gifts and abilities we do have. They are God’s good creation, after all. But what if we stopped caring about how we compare?

The Apostle Peter is leading the people to whom he is writing in this letter in that direction in these words. “Be submissive,” he writes. “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” He wasn’t encouraging them, or us to feel bad about themselves. He wants to promote the good, old-fashioned virtue of humility. Not everything in life has to be a competition. Nothing requires that we promote ourselves above others. Honesty requires that we admit we are merely average on some measures, even below average. Like everyone else, our natural spiritual condition is an utter mess.

Owning up to our humble circumstances only makes sense when you consider the consequences God promises. He opposes the proud. Life is hard enough as it is. We already have too many battles to fight. We suffer from unsteady, uncertain health. We struggle to make a living. We have neighbors, coworkers, even family members who make it their business to make interacting with them difficult. Who needs God’s opposition on top of all that? No proudly independent sinner has ever come out on top of a confrontation with him.

He gives grace to the humble. Grace is what we need, not a self-image based on make-believe strengths and virtues. Grace brings God’s very real forgiveness and power. Grace builds our lives on his divine help and mercy. Grace makes us people who are loved and valued even through our failures. Grace means that God treats us as good even though we aren’t good enough. He offers his wisdom to compensate for our foolishness. He likes us, he loves us, though we have given him no reason to do so.

Humility before a gracious God offers us genuine security in place of pride’s counterfeit “self-esteem.” “Clothe yourselves with humility.” You will find that it makes us more attractive to other people, too.