Optimism

There is an optimism which nobly anticipates
the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an
optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthiness.

Agnes Repplier

An optimistic outlook is a result of having confidence that good is ultimately going to triumph over evil. It is an attitude that imparts patience in the midst of difficult circumstances, and also patience with less-than-perfect people.

Optimism doesn't mean that we're naive about the reality of evil in the world or the extent of the damage that evil has done. While it believes that one day everything will be fine, optimism is not so foolish as to imagine that everything is fine today. Clearly, everything is not fine, and genuine optimism looks at the facts with total honesty.

But is there any reason to believe that good will ultimately triumph over evil? I believe there is, even if we limit ourselves to the empirical evidence of human history and our own personal experience. If we consider the evidence, I believe we can't help but see a pattern: truth tends to outlast falsehood, and rightdoing tends to outlast wrongdoing. The victories of evil in this world may be shocking and justice may be long delayed, but facts are stubborn and truth is resilient. Eventually, good has the last say. Why this is so is another question (one that is very interesting, both philosophically and religiously), but the pattern is undeniably clear. Right is more durable than wrong.

So we can make an intellectual choice to be optimists. In hours of darkness, we can choose to hold on to what we've learned while the sun was shining. Maintaining our confidence that good will outlast its enemy, we can stand our ground before the various onslaughts of evil.

Optimism is an important perspective in life not because it makes us feel better but because it strengthens us and gives us courage. Life happens to be full of battles that have to be fought, and as Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Pessimism never won any battle." Backbone comes from belief -- belief that, despite any number of short-term setbacks, the long-term triumph of good is still sure.

The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present,
but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have
resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future
for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Faith Invents

"And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they
uncovered
the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down
the
bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay."
- Mark 2:4



Faith is full of inventions. The house was full, a crowd blocked up the
door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the
palsied
man before him. If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary
methods we must use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke
5:19,
that a tiling had to be removed, which would make dust and cause a
measure
of danger to those below, but where the case is very urgent we must not
mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties.
Jesus was there to heal, and therefore fall what might, faith ventured
all so that her poor paralysed charge might have his sins forgiven.
O that we had more daring faith among us! Cannot we, dear reader, seek
it
this morning for ourselves and for our fellow-workers, and will we not
try
to-day to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory
of
the Lord.


The world is constantly inventing; genius serves all the purposes of
human
desire: cannot faith invent too, and reach by some new means the
outcasts
who lie perishing around us? It was the presence of Jesus which excited
victorious courage in the four bearers of the palsied man: is not the
Lord
among us now? Have we seen his face for ourselves this morning? Have we
felt his healing power in our own souls? If so, then through door,
through
window, or through roof, let us, breaking through all impediments,
labour
to bring poor souls to Jesus. All means are good and decorous when
faith
and love are truly set on winning souls.
If hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger for
souls is not to be hindered in its efforts.
O Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching thy poor sin-sick
ones, and bold to carry them out at all hazards.