An optimist’s view of a pessimistic world

There’s plenty to occupy the mind of the pessimist. A Bleak economy. Bad news around the world. A protracted war. Heavy traffic. Moral decline.Indigestion. Post nasal drip. You name it – and it’s happening in very real ways.

Image by Ankher via Flickr

If you are pessimist by nature, you’ve got to be feeling a little smug right now.  It doesn’t help that the current presidential selection process is based on who has the worst news to reveal.


I can hear the nay-sayer now. “I told you so!” 


Getting some people to see any glimmer is nearly impossible. They have the uncanny ability to stare down the brightest light until they force it to go dark.


I worked with a coworker who just brought everyone down with him. He was certain the world was against him, or at least plotting against him. There was never a good day without a pain, a bad relationship or a fight to pick. Darkness followed him.

I have a relative who would rather see the sin than the grace, the wrongs more than the rights, the punishment over the salvation. The joy of heaven is drowned out by the shouts of finding yet another fault in someone.

I have people who pick apart every word I write on this page, finding error with me, or the church, or the world. Bleakness seems to be their only friend.

But I’m being honest here. I often take some comfort in my own grumblings and revel in my mumblings. I have some fellow soldiers in this battle to the bottom, and we all drag our feet and become slaves to the steady, droll drumbeat of an apathetic world. After all, it takes zero work to look at the dark side of situations. 


Some Scripture needs to be understood, or translated or studied. Some just stands on it’s own, like Phillipians 2:14. “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”

Unsettling? Try downright frightening for some of us. To live and speak everything without complaint or arguement punctures a hole in the Bad Ship Lollipop. It sinks the comfortable, negative world. It suddenly changes the world view away from me and my cranky attitude. 

“Be positive? How?” 

It starts with a different vision – a way to see things that are unseen. To see this world through the Father’s eyes. It means finding good in the bad, hope out of the hopeless, and blessings out of brokenness. 

Got a comment, In all the ugliness around us, how do you find beauty? Please comment here.