"So are you an optimist about human nature or a pessimist?"
This question was posed to me last week at the beach by Kelly's cousin Lisa as we were with Kelly's extended family. This annual family gathering at the beach is always a high point in my year because there are always at least one or two really thoughtful discussions with people who at all kinds of different places spiritually. Lisa, in particular, is good for at least one really good conversation.
The question has stuck with me over the past couple days. Am I an optimist or pessimist about human nature?
I told Lisa (and I think that I still stand by this) that I'm an optimistic pessimist. I think people, left to their own devices, will always be a mixed bag of some good and some bad. I think that people, innately, are broken--sin corrupts all of our motives and relationships with one another, with power, with money, with the environment, all of it.
But I'm optimistic in that I believe that redemption, hope, transformation, change is all possible. And I believe that people are capable of much beauty and love and generosity and power used rightly. I believe that by God's grace this can happen fitfully and in fragments even apart from the power of Christ. But I believe that this happens most fully and only finally and ultimately by the power of Christ, through his Spirit.
And so in the end, I end up being an optimist. In Jesus Christ's resurrection, death has already been defeated. The battle has already been won. My new, fully redeemed name is already written. Death and my own sins and the sins done against me do not have the last word. God does. Hope does. Hope wins.
There's some optimistic pessimism for you.
2 comments:
Good thoughts, AK... I've pondered this dilemma many times as well, and I really appreciate your conclusions.
Looking at the same scenario, same question, if you were not a believer, would your answer be the same, or the reverse? :-)
leave it to kristen to ask the good question. i think that my temperament when i was younger was pretty pessimistic. i think my theology has at least in part shaped my optimism...but i think i'm probably really an optimist at heart.
perhaps my theological journeys have helped me to come into the optimist that God actually made me to be. i think that this is true of many things--as we look more deeply into God's character, he helps us to discover who we truly are as well.
would i have developed into an optimist apart from Christ? Perhaps, but I'm glad I don't have to find out!
Post a Comment