Is it OK to love myself?

St. Augustine's basic prayer with which he began his Confessions was "May I know Thee, O Lord, and also know myself." Dr. James Houston calls this the double-knowledge. He says that you can't know one without knowing the other. I don't really know myself unless I know God, and I don't really know God unless I know myself—both kinds of knowing are intertwined. I'd extrapolate from this that you can't love one without loving the other.

How can you love the one that loves you first unless you first know yourself as lovable?

One of the main problems I see today is the emphasis on "self-esteem," which has nothing to do with an accurate "self estimate." If we were to have an accurate self-estimate, we would see ourselves as sinners who are even so entirely lovable because we are loved by our heavenly Father. Instead, we opt for trying to think of ourselves as not-sinners. But since the evidence is very much to the contrary, we can't believe the real good stuff about ourselves. How can I be truly be lovable if I'm not the good person I try to think that I am? It doesn't work that way.

So, while our culture tries to love itself and fails, Christians try to think of themselves as above self-love.

It's reflected in our church slogans. So many of them say that what we're on about, in essence, is "Loving God. Loving People." Three churches I've come across this past week have that as their slogan. One church adds place to its love by adding the third phrase "Loving Corvallis" which is a good step forward. But none of them have the guts or even the inclination to put "Loving Ourselves." They'd probably think that that'd come across as narcissists instead of as honest Christians.

Our slogan at our church is "Meeting Jesus and Discovering Real Community, Real Worship, Real Life" -- the community part has to do with loving others; the worship part has to do with loving God; and the life part has to do with loving ourselves.

Is it true that we are loved by the Great Lover? If it is true, whatever we've done or not done, we are each entirely lovable because God in Christ has gone to the utmost in loving us. And that's something to build a life on.