{"id":5954,"date":"2018-10-31T15:33:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=5954"},"modified":"2018-10-31T15:33:24","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:33:24","slug":"trade-the-safety-of-pessimism-for-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2018\/10\/trade-the-safety-of-pessimism-for-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade the Safety of Pessimism for Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The land of unanswered prayer is full of people like me\u2014people who have lost their optimism. People who spend sleepless nights waiting for another shoe to drop. Many of us then seek to protect ourselves by lowering our expectation to minimal levels. We trade hope for safety.<\/strong>
\nHear me, friend: This is not a sound exchange.
\nI know, I know\u2014I keep telling you to embrace the pain in whatever form it comes. I keep telling you to eschew fantasy and meet your aching straight on. All of this is true. But it will do you no good to hurl yourself in the other direction, either.
\nAching is a part of our existence, and it always will be. But then, so is joy.<\/strong> There will be storms, but there will also be days with a gentle breeze, a blue sky, and seventy-five-degree temperatures. Is one day any more solid than the other? Is a pessimist\u2019s world any more realistic than the optimist\u2019s? Neither has much control on the world, but both will taste hardships as well as blessings.
\nI made a grievous miscalculation when I let my hope die the way I did. In doing so, I became an enemy of surprise. I put a cap on what God could do, on what my son could do, and in how much I could grow.
\nThis is why we must be wary of which voices we pay allegiance to. In the world of autism, for instance, we hear many voices. The prognostications of doctors and specialists can be devastating. They sometimes say things like, \u201cYour son will probably never learn to speak,\u201d or, \u201cYour little girl is not capable of empathy,\u201d or, \u201cDon\u2019t expect her to ever make friends.\u201d
\nI\u2019m not suggesting we ignore these pronouncements. We should listen to and ponder them. But why should we swallow them whole? Do you know how many children have been sentenced to these futures and yet overcome them?
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\nBut this isn\u2019t about autism; it\u2019s about you. You will hear the pronouncements, too, if you haven\u2019t already. Your situation is full of questions and uncertainties, and voices will emerge to fill those uncertainties. They will tell you that nothing will ever improve. They will tell you to shut the door to the possibility that anything will change or that your heart will ever heal. They will tell you to go into the hope-management system and lower the bar until it\u2019s level with your ankles. They might even know what they\u2019re talking about.
\nIt might look hopeless from where you sit. Indeed, it makes no sense to keep hoping for good things if we are on our own, or if God is dead. But what if he lives? What if the songs we sing on Sundays are true? What if God\u2019s Spirit is yet active in this world? How could we ever surrender completely to sorrow? How could we shut the door to the intervening hand of a saving God?
\nYou are hurting, I know, and you have a right to your pain. Jesus Christ, too, was a man of sorrow, a man who wept. You are a child of the most high King, and as such, you have privileges:<\/p>\n