Many of us have seen friends and loved ones fall ill, family members lose their jobs, priests heroically offer their themselves to minister to their flocks, doctors, nurses, police officers, and other emergency workers place themselves in harm’s way to meet the needs of others, and business leaders struggle to keep their businesses afloat. In this trying time, we are called to keep this distinction between authentic hope and optimism in mind. We have not the right to despair, and, finally, we have not the reason to despair. It is the unblinking acknowledgment of all that militates against hope, and the unrelenting refusal to despair. Hope, on the other hand, is a Christian virtue. Optimism is a matter optics, of seeing what you want to see and not seeing what you don’t want to see. It is used with permission.Father Richard John Neuhaus famously distinguished hope and optimism: That is because I trust in the “God of hope.”Īccordingly, Romans 15:13 (NIV) is my prayer for us all: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in God, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit.”Įditor’s note: A version of this article first appeared on Seat’s blog, The View from this Seat. Regardless of what happens, though, I will continue to be hopeful, believing that things will get better later, if not sooner. If the latter is also a disappointment, then I will begin working for 2028 (although there may be little I can do, for that is the year I turn 90, if I make it that far). ![]() If this year’s legislation doesn’t turn out as I would like, then I will do what little I can to help elect better members of Congress in 2022.Īnd if the elections of 2022 turn out to be a disappointment, then, again, I will do what little I can to elect the best president and Congress possible in 2024. To be honest, I am not very optimistic about this year’s pending legislation or about the elections of 2022 or 2024. So, how should we approach the future of this country under the current president and Congress? ![]() Love is something that is best expressed not in words, but in action. It is often said that “love is a verb,” and I believe that is true. Love is not simply a feeling or an emotion. But isn’t it true to say that not just faith, but both love and hope without actions are also dead? But faith and hope are a close third and second.įurther, James 2:26 declares, “Faith without actions is dead” (Common English Bible). Like the Kingdom of God, hope also demands that we work for what we hope for, knowing that it might well be a long time before that hope will be realized.ġ Corinthians 13:13 says, “Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three and the greatest of these is love” (NRSV). Thus, I like what Black theologian/philosopher Cornel West tweeted back in January 2013: “I cannot be optimistic but I am a prisoner of hope.”Ī key difference between optimism and hope, as defined/described above, is this: optimism doesn’t demand anything of us (everything is going to be all right!), but hope entails effort as we endeavor to actualize that for which we hope. So, yes, a person can be hopeful even if they are not optimistic. Later in that book, Wallis reiterates what he has often said: “Hope means believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change.”Īnd here are wise words from an Irish poet, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013): “Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.” … It is a choice, a decision, an action based on faith. People with a sunny temperament are usually optimists people with dark dispositions are mostly pessimists.Īs Jim Wallis writes in his 2019 book Christ in Crisis, hope “is not simply a feeling, or a mood. Optimism is an aspect of a person’s disposition or temperament. ![]() Here is the definition from for optimism: “A disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.”īy contrast, hope means to work for, and to wait for, something with the confident expectation and anticipation that it will at some point, sooner or later, be fulfilled. ![]() Some definitions of optimism and hope sound as if they are synonyms. So, what is that difference, and can a person actually be hopeful but not optimistic? And don’t give up hope there is a difference between hope and optimism.” I responded, “I am sorry to hear that your optimism is waning – but that is not necessarily a bad thing, for it is better to be realistic than optimistic. A good friend recently wrote, “My usual optimism is fading.”
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