1. “I am Worthless.” False.

The Lord God Jesus Christ doesn't make junk. He has profound love and purpose for every one of us. It might not be readily or steadily apparent, and it sure isn't "fair" that some people have more external advantages than other people. But the Lord takes the long view. Our natural and spiritual lives start at the same time. Our natural lives are sort of like a booster rocket stage; they get us going, and eventually get used up, and fall away... while our spiritual lives go on and on.

The natural life booster stage is vital. It gives us a chance to try/fail, try/fail, try/succeed. Each of us is dealt a natural-life hand of cards. They aren't the same. Sometimes we get a bad hand, and it's really tough. But... there it is, and we have to play it. So, how do we approach it? Selfishly? Bitterly? Meanly? Angrily? Or do we do our best with it, and try -- and keep on sincerely trying day after day, year after year -- to love the Lord and love our neighbors?

The second-stage trajectory is a lot better if we take the unselfish approach. This is NOT easy. But it IS possible.

Here are many Bible passages that speak to this; here are a few examples:

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20).

"the mercies of the Lord are from everlasting to everlasting upon those that fear Him" (Psalms 103:17).

"I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalms 40:1-2).

Here, too, are a couple of interesting excerpts from Arcana Coelestia:

"All inward trial contains doubt over the Lord's presence and mercy, over salvation, and so on. People undergoing such trials feel deep distress, even to the point of despair." (Arcana Coelestia 2334).

"when someone is subject to temptations, the Lord struggles for him, overcoming the spirits of hell who assail him; and after his temptation He glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual." (True Christian Religion 599)

In Arcana Coelestia again, we also find this: "It is also wrong to think that because we have nothing but evil inside us we cannot receive goodness from the Lord–goodness that has heaven in it because it has the Lord in it, and that has bliss and happiness in it because it has heaven in it." (Arcana Coelestia 2371).

True humility does NOT mean believing that "you" are worthless. It means that you realize that the evil in you is from hell, and worthless, and that the good in you is from the Lord, and very worthwhile. Any "you" are this mixture, with the God-given power to reject one and adopt the other. Even if you get into a dark place, that God-given power is still available to you. You can turn away from the evil, and towards the good, and the mixture will gradually change.

2. "I am Doing the Best I Can." Also False.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the “I am doing the best I can” attitude. This is common; we hear it bandied about a lot. We probably think it ourselves pretty often, too. But is it true? Are we ever really doing the best we can? Maybe occasionally. But probably not nearly as often as we trot out this justification!

It's a subtle thing. "I'm OK the way I am," is partly true. God doesn't make junk. And you need a positive "can-do" attitude. But if you think you're OK as is, you probably aren't. Here's how it works: The good loves and true ideas that you have ARE "OK the way they are." When they are the things you're using to govern your life, you're OK. You're on the right road. But, your evil loves and false ideas are NOT OK the way they are, and you need to get rid of them. If you don't, to the extent you're using them to govern your life, they will dominate you spiritually, and snuff out the good.

Here's another interesting excerpt from Arcana Coelestia: "In short, to the extent that a person is governed by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour he is governed by his internal man; and from his internal man springs his thought and will, and from there also his words and his actions. But to the extent that a person is ruled by self-love and love of the world he is ruled by his external man, and also his words and actions spring from there, so far as he dares to let them." (Arcana Coelestia 9705)

Our perception of whether we're doing our very best is unreliable. We want other people to believe it. We want to believe it ourselves. But if we're actually being ruled by our "external man", our perception's not accurate. And we won't see that.

3. The Hopeful Path.

So, we are worthwhile, AND there's room for improvement. Both the self-condemning state (“I am worthless”) and the self-satisfied state (“I am doing the best I can”) cut us off from genuine spiritual progress. The former denies the Lord’s love and His ability to transform us. The latter downplays our real need for His ongoing salvation.

What's the good path to take? Weed out the evil and the false. Cultivate the good and the true. Know and internalize the belief that the Lord loves us, and know, too, that we can (and need to) do better, with His help.

"Cease to do evil, learn to do good." (Isaiah 1:16)

"turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Jehovah my God..." (Jeremiah 31:18)

"Away then with fear; you are more precious than a multitude of sparrows." (Matthew 10:31)

1712. That 'he divided himself against them by night' means the shade which the apparent goods and truths were in is clear from the meaning of 'night' as a state of shade. It is called a state of shade when a person does not know whether good and truth are apparent or genuine. While a person is limited to apparent good and truth he imagines that these are genuine good and truth. It is the evil and falsity present in apparent good and truth that produce the shade and cause them to be seen as genuine. What else can people who are in ignorance know than that the good they do is their own, and that the truth they think is their own? The same applies to people who ascribe the good deeds they do to themselves and place merit in them, unaware of the fact that in this case those deeds are not good though they appear to be so, and that the proprium and the self-merit they place in them are evils and falsities that cause obscurity and darkness. And the same applies in many other instances.

[2] What evil and falsity are like, and how much evil and falsity lie concealed in such deeds, cannot possibly be seen so clearly in the life of the body as in the next life, where these are presented to view altogether as in broad daylight. But it is different if a person acts out of ignorance that has not been confirmed, for in that case those evils and falsities are easily dispersed. But if people confirm themselves in the notion that they are able to do good and to withstand evil by their own powers, and that thus they merit salvation, such a notion remains attached, and causes the good to be evil, and the truth to be falsity. Yet for all this, order requires that a person should do good as though from himself, and ought not therefore to stay his hand and think to himself, 'If I am unable to do anything good at all from myself I must wait for immediate influx' and so remain inactive. This is also contrary to order. Man ought to do good as though from himself; but when he stops to reflect on the good he is doing or has done, let him think, acknowledge, and believe that the Lord present with him has accomplished it.

[3] If by thinking as described he gives up acting as of himself he is not a subject into whom the Lord can operate. The Lord cannot flow into anyone who deprives himself of everything into which power has to be introduced. He is like someone who is not willing to learn anything except through a revelation made to him; or like someone who is not willing to teach anything unless the words are put into his mouth; or like someone who is unwilling to attempt anything unless he is directed as one without a will. But if this were done he would be more indignant still at being like an inanimate object. In fact however that which is animated by the Lord in a person is the very thing which makes it seem as though it were from himself. That man does not live from himself is an eternal truth; yet if he did not appear to do so he could not possibly live at all.