You’re not awesome or great or imbued with some radical purpose or potential that will magically make your life phenomenal and give you oodles of self esteem once you discover it.
You’re a dirty, stinking, rotten, rebellious sinner. You yell at your kids. You don’t submit to your husband. You act out of selfishness. You lie. You gossip. You covet. You bow down to your idols instead of to Christ. You sin against a holy and righteous God in a thousand ways every day in thought, word, and deed.
Remember, never forget, drive the thought into the most deeply buried crevice of your mind: Y’all are no damn good.
That “you’re a dirty, stinking, rotten, rebellious sinner,” that you are a putrid blot on the cosmos, that your highest aim ought to be self-annihilation because your self is no damn good … that is Christianity’s indispensable metaphysical claim. Take it away, and the idea of salvation is meaningless and Christianity has nothing on offer.
Christianity cannot flourish among the healthy.