Is your dog pessimistic or
optimistic? The following article from
the Guardian, Monday 11 October 2012 is illuminating.
Optimistic
dogs seem less prone to anxiety when left alone.
Scientists
have confirmed what many pet owners have long suspected: some dogs have a more
gloomy outlook on life than others.
The
unusual insight into canine psychology emerged from a study by Bristol
University researchers into how dogs behave when separated from their owners.
Dogs
that were generally calm when left alone were also found to have a "dog
bowl half full" attitude to life, while those that barked, relieved
themselves and destroyed furniture appeared to be more pessimistic, the study
concluded.
Michael
Mendl, head of animal welfare and behaviour at the university, said the more
anxiously a dog behaved on being parted from its owner, the more gloomy its
outlook appeared to be.
We
know that people's emotional states affect their judgements and that happy people
are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively," Mendl said.
"What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs – that a
'glass half full' dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one
with a more 'pessimistic' nature."
This reminds me of
my uncle Harvey who was a self-confessed pessimist. He told the following story. “There were two brothers. One was an optimist and the other was a
pessimist. At Christmas the boy’s
parents decided to try to bring some balance to both of the boy’s outlook on
life. When the boys came downstairs on
Christmas morning the pessimist found a live pony under the tree with his name
on it, and the optimist found a basket of horse manure. The pessimist said, ‘Oh, no! The poor pony is going to die.’ The optimist looked at his basket of horse
manure and said, ‘Oh boy! Where’s my
pony?” What makes the story personally
funny to me is that it was my pessimistic uncle who told it.
The question is, ‘How do you face life?’
We are faced with a variety of
issues on three levels. There is stress
on the national political scene; there is stress, division, and uncertainty in
the national church, and there is an assault on many areas of people’s personal
lives. One of my brother clergy said, “My people are getting absolutely
hammered. Health issues, jobs, family
problems, personal problems.” Life
always has had its ups and downs, but it is very hard for the pessimist to
recognize that there are ups as well as downs.
Let me remind you of four basic sets of presuppositions that
ultimately point us in the direction of being pessimists or optimists.
We either believe that:
God is, or He isn’t
That God communicates, or that He
doesn’t
That Jesus is the Communication of
God, or He isn’t
Miracles happen, or they don’t
Those four presuppositions will
govern not only our understanding of Christian faith and theology, but also our
view of whether or not human life is viable and has meaning.
When Christians believe that God
is, they believe that He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. If you
really believe that God is almighty, that He is all knowing, and everywhere,
you are already pointed in the direction of optimism, for the one who believes
that knows that there is nothing that can happen that God can’t redeem.
That is the underlying issue in
the following story. What do you
think? Were the disciples pessimistic or
optimistic, and what does that have to do with Jesus question, “Why are you so
afraid?”
“On that day, when evening had come,
he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd, they took him with
them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves
were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the
cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that
we are perishing?" And he awoke and
rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm. He
said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said
to one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?" (Mark
4:35-41)
How were the disciples looking at
life? Pessimistically or Optimistically? If we are to live the life of faith we will
need to see each of the challenges we face through Holy Eyes. That is, we will want to see things from the
perspective of our Lord, rather than see them through the fears of the world. Let me warn you, there is such a thing as
naïve Optimism; not everything is right with the world.
There is an interesting text that warns us about the nature
of fear:
For the LORD spoke thus to me with
his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people,
saying: 12 "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls
conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread (Isaiah 8:11).
Did you know that fear and the accompanying pessimism is
like a flu bug. It’s viral. It’s catching and it can spread from person
to person in a family, in a parish, and even through a diocese or a national
church.
In part the
antidote for pessimism lies in our understanding of the nature of God:
Do you believe that God is Omnipotent?
Hear the words of the prophet
kheh-qat-tsar
ruach adonai
“Is the Spirit of the Lord short?” (Micah 2:7).
Can your God deal
with the things that confront you?
Hear what the Lord says to Moses:
kheh-yad
adonai kheh-qat-tsar
“Is the hand of Lord short?” (Numbers 11:23)
Let your hearts
cry out:
“Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has
made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched
arm! Nothing is too hard for you!” (Jeremiah 32:17).
Jesus Himself
says to you:
“What is impossible with men is
possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)
The key to power is the indwelling of Christ: Jesus gives us
a direct promise of His power. He says:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Dame Julian Norwich in the 14th C gives that
great confession: “All shall be well, and all shall
be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Then she hears her Lord say: “What is
impossible to you is not impossible to me . . .. I shall make all things well.”
There is nothing facing you that God in His power can’t deal
with.
There is nothing facing a parish church that God in His
power can’t deal with.
There is nothing facing this nation that God in His power
can’t deal with.
There is nothing in the way of challenges facing the
national church that God in His power can’t deal with:
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it” (Matthew 16:18).
We are called to step
forth in faith. We are called to walk on
the water with Jesus:
There is one quote that for years has guided much of my thinking about acts
of initiative:
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of
initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which
kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help
one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues
from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents
and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would
have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
“Whatever
you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic
in it.” [i]
No matter what the issue is that confronts you, one truth
abides: God is, and He is Omnipotent!
Is it a matter of Optimism or
Pessimism, or is it a matter of faith? In
the words of Peter:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the
Holy One of God.” (John 6:68, 69).
Copyright © 2013 Robin P. Smith
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