'Our natural condition under sin is to be "glory empty" - starved for significance, honor, and a sense of worth. Sin makes us feel superior and overconfident (because we are trying to prove to ourselves and others that we are significant) and inferior and underconfident (because at a deep level we feel guilty and insecure). Some people's glory emptiness primarily takes the form of bravado and evident pride; for others, it takes the form of self-deprectaion and self-loating. Most of us are wracked by both impulses. Either way, until the gospel changes us, we will use people in relationships. We do not work for the sake of the work, we do not relate for the sake of the person. Rather, we work and relkate to bolster our own self-image - to derive it, essentially from others.'
Timothy Keller, Center Church, p.318.
