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I am not an Optimist
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Many people have called me an optimist and I strongly disagree. Here’s why. When I think of an optimist, I think we usually mean someone who just always paints a rosy picture and pretends everything is good and they just kind of ignore the bad stuff. And I like to tell people I am not an optimist. I’m not ignoring the bad stuff or pretending these bad things don’t happen. I am a positive realist. It here’s what I mean: I’m not denying the bad, but I just don’t want us to forget the good, the blessings.
It’s interesting. We have this tendency, I think, to have things in our lives where we think that either have to be good or bad. This is a good moment or it’s a bad moment. But the reality is we can be in the middle of challenges, but also be incredibly blessed. And this isn’t just my idea. Let me read some words for you from Second Corinthians chapter four. So this is the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)
Do you hear all those things he has, we have these things going on. But look at what God has done. I mean, and that’s really the gospel, isn’t it? When Jesus goes to the cross, this is a terrible thing. People have rejected him. His own people have rejected him. There’s all this sadness, and yet we have a God who actually takes that sadness, that awful event, and he uses that as the way he sets us right with him. Through their rejection, we get redemption. Through Jesus’ death, we get life.
Death is a bad thing. The rejection was a bad thing. And yet in the midst of that, we see the greatest love. We see Jesus dying for our sins so he can rise again to set us right with God. So in the middle of all this, now, as people who know this gospel, we are people who are living, seeing that death was not part of God’s original plan for this world, that was a result of sin. But now death is a doorway to life. In the midst of challenges today, yes, it can be so difficult, but you have a God who is with you, who is for you. Think about the ways he has blessed you. Recognize the strength he will give to you. See the way he will provide for you. Acknowledge the bad, but also remember the good.
I think I’ve made my case, hopefully for me being a positive realist.
