94% of college professors rate themselves above average.

32% of software engineers put their performance ratings in the top 5% of their company.

And the vast majority of U.S. drivers consistently rate themselves as above-average behind the wheel.  It's called illusory superiority. It points to our propensity toward poor self-assessment and self-awareness. 

And no one is immune.

On Sunday we will hear a familiar Bible story about a priest and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray. What follows is an exercise in illusory superiority, as the clergy person boasts of his self-worth, while the tax collector seems to see things more clearly and reaps the benefit of this parable's payoff: he is forgiven.

And this is the only viable antidote to our pervasive illusory superiority: we can awaken from our Illusions to forgiveness. God is well aware of our self-deceptions and deals with them in the most merciful way possible: God forgives us.

The questions are, how self-aware are we and how willing are we to forgive ourselves for our poor judgment?

Forgive yourself.

God does.