Elizabeth Wood
Dear friends,
My son and I have been glued to the World Cup, watching games together and texting updates. I didn’t know how to react, however, when he said, with boyish confidence: “Don’t worry, Mom, we’ve got this. It’s England’s year…”
My immediate thought was “Oh no. He doesn’t know. Doesn’t realize. England hasn’t won the World Cup since 1966. They only made it to the semifinals twice since. This is the heartbreak; the bitter experience England fans live with.
It made me wonder about the role of optimism in our lives, as people of faith.
I learned about “The Stockdale Paradox”. Admiral Stockdale was a POW in Vietnam for seven years—he dedicated his time in captivity to ministering to other prisoners. He was later asked, “Who had the worst, the hardest time?” He responded that those who broke were the relentlessly optimistic. Those who convinced themselves—we will be out of here by Easter. We will be home by Christmas. They were crushed by constant disappointment.
Who fared better? Those who balanced optimism with acceptance that their current situation was dire. “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.”
They call it “gritty faith, gritty facts”.
As Christians, are we called to be optimists, to always expect the most favorable outcome, find the silver lining, and encourage others to do the same? That would be to ignore the need to confront the real pain and sin in the world—the gritty facts. On the other extreme, pessimism fails to see the good in the world, its joys, and reasons to celebrate.
Rather than optimism, we are called to hope. Hope is about the future. We know that God keeps his promise—and in those very promises we find the strength and encouragement to get through the hard things in life.
Paul writes in Corinthians: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Gritty faith, gritty facts.
May today be a day filled with hope, whether we are facing joy or pain, celebrating or grieving, feeling “up” or “down”. Even in the face of “gritty facts” may we show “gritty faith”, secure in the knowledge that God keeps his promises and will bring us to eternal glory.
—Elizabeth