This is Part 2 of the series titled, “Self-Esteem: A Well Groomed Lie.” In part one we went over the definition of self-esteem and covered the first three points of the definition in contrast to God’s word. If you haven’t listened to part one I highly recommend you listen to or read it before getting into part two, and with that recommendation, let’s get started on the fourth point of the definition of self-esteem. Is Worldly Fulfillment Natural? 4. Self-esteem is also the experience that success, achievement, fulfillment – happiness – are right and natural for us. I’m just going to address one thing on this list, because it is the most important. Worldly fulfillment. Is fulfillment right and natural for us? There isn’t any specific verse that tells us, “God made you to desire Him, and if you don’t turn to Him, you will have an empty and miserable life, no matter what you do.” But we do see stories of famous people, people that have it all, committing suicide or overdosing on drugs they are taking to numb the painful emotions they feel. Worldly objects and worldly relationships just can’t fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts, can they? This reminds me of one of my favorite stories in the bible. Jesus is doing something He was always doing, looking for lost people that needed Him. He was at a Samaritan well, during the hottest part of the day, a big no-no at the time and in that culture, and he encounters a woman. Let’s go straight to the text in John 4:6-18: “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” Say Hello To Mrs. Thirsty Meet Mrs. Thirsty, the shameful adulteress that had been married five times unsuccessfully. This woman was going to the well in the middle of the day because no one else wanted to be around her. She was an outcast. Please keep that in mind, Jesus loves the outcasts just as much as He loves everyone else. Jesus went after the outcasts of society during His ministry. Mrs. Thirsty is someone I can relate to in so many ways. If you read the verse after this, you will find out that Mrs. Thirsty knew about the Messiah that was coming (4:25). She was searching for something that would fulfill her!! But it didn’t come to her naturally, as Dr. Branden assures us it should in his definition of self-esteem. She had been through five marriages and now she was living with a man she wasn’t married to. This was not culturally accepted during this time, as it is today in the world. She was desperate for something to give her life meaning! At first she thinks Jesus is talking about special wat...