Celebrated
southern writer, Pat Conroy, had a complicated relationship with his
father, a Marine aviator. This relationship was immortalized in the
novel,The Great Santini . Pat and his father did come to develop a
good relationship later in life. Pat Conroy wrote the following as
part of his eulogy for his father:

“Donald
Conroy is the only person I have ever known whose self-esteem was
absolutely unassailable. There was not one thing about himself that
my father did not like, nor was there one thing about himself that he
would change. He simply adored the man he was and walked with perfect
confidence through every encounter in his life. Dad wished everyone
could be just like him. His stubbornness was an art form. The Great
Santini did what he did, when he wanted to do it, and woe to the man
who got in his way.

Once I introduced my
father before he gave a speech to an Atlanta audience. I said at the
end of the introduction, ‘My father decided to go into the Marine Corps
on the day he discovered his IQ was the temperature of this room.’ My
father rose to the podium, stared down at the audience, and said
without skipping a beat, ‘My, it’s hot in here! It must be at least
180 degrees.'”

Self-confidence has its place,
but there is a limit to it. At some point each of us much reach out
to a higher source for our confidence that just ourselves.

_______________

J. Michael Shannon is professor of preaching at Cincinnati Bible College in Cincinnati, OH.