Hope & Optimism

I’m an optimistic person. I look through a lens that sees good in all the messiness and hurt of life. Sometimes that lens gets very dirty and it’s hard to see any good, the silver lining amidst the pain, sadness, and sorrow. When that happens, I feel like giving up. I’ve come close, but something still causes me to hang on, to keep looking, until I see the light. That persistence has paid off and it keeps me going. There are always eventually brighter days.

What is that “something” that works in me to help me hang on and not give up? It’s hope. I know that I am not an accident. I know that my life counts for something and I matter to someone. That belief sustains me and gives me purpose. I’ve memorized this verse from the Bible, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

I want you to believe too. I want you to have the same hope. You count. You matter. However, there’s only one way possible to believe this. You have to love God. It is not possible if you don’t know God yet or are indifferent to God.

Don’t let people prevent you from loving God. People are not God (despite what many want you to think about them). God created humans, but humans are severely flawed. We are all broken and fall short of perfection because we are given a mind free to make decisions and an ego that gets in the way. We are all hurt in some way and hurt people tend to hurt other people. It’s like a domino effect that causes our inability to love God. The good news is our minds can recover from those bad decisions by choosing to love God. One choice makes all the difference in perspective. Don’t blame God for the bad things humans do.

You can rest assured that God is up to something good in your life, even if you can’t see it. God actively works to bring good out of whatever happens in or around you. To be hopeful during tough times, you’ll need to latch onto this truth.

Hope and optimism aren’t the same thing. Optimism is the belief that something bad will turn out well according to what you want to happen. Hope is the absolute confidence that every part of your life will ultimately make sense because it’s what God wants to happen. That’s a promise, but you have to love God for it to come to fruition. That promise is also stated in the Bible, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

The Bible isn’t saying every event in your life will be good, however, it is saying that when you put your whole life together, every piece of it works together for good. It’s like baking cookies. You may not like the taste of each ingredient as you’re mixing the batter, but when you take them out of the warm oven, you can’t resist them. God wants to bake an amazingly tasty chocolate chip cookie with your life, and he wants to use the disgusting and bitter ingredients of life to do it.