Your Spiritual Journey
Pessimism and Optimism
Pessimism and Optimism
A couple of weeks ago I brought out that people with different perspectives can conflict with each other without either one being technically wrong. This week we’ve seen a couple of devos contrasting Thinkers and Doers. Personally, I’ve been “thinking” a lot about the two primary ways people look at the world, Pessimism and Optimism.
For the Optimist, F.E.A.R. is just an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. There's no true threat of immediate physical danger, no threat of a loss of someone or something dear to us, nothing there at all. F.E.A.R. is an illusion. Something we fabricate in our own minds and pretend is real.
For the Pessimist fear is real because they’ve learned that imprudence often leads to regret. For them, that regret is a far worse consequence than blissfully going through life hoping for the best. Never having a care about tomorrow is the illusion. Something we fabricate in our own minds and pretend is real.
Again, we’ve come upon a seemingly irreconcilable conflict in perspective. We can chase after scriptures to support one approach over the other to justify ourselves by making the other person wrong, but is that really God’s will for us?
Is a Doer better than a Thinker? Is an Optimist better than a Pessimist? Is the Sinner that repents in response to God’s Loving Grace, any more saved than the one that does it out of Fear of Judgment? Paul addresses the underlying issue behind these questions in 1 Cor 12:12-27 with a call for unity in Christ that binds us together as one. Notably, he never demands that we do away with our unique differences in perspective and abilities but calls for us to maintain those qualities to make the body stronger.
I pray that we may rejoice in the knowledge that God intended for us to be unique, and that it pleases him when we learn to work together in harmony, despite our differences.
Andy
