Possessing vital optimism in God

Let my first words be an acknowledgment that today’s column is based largely on the book Mid-Course Corrections by Gordon MacDonald.

I don’t claim much personal original thought in today’s writing but was so moved by his assessment I want to pass it on.

First World War Military historian John Keegan provides this analysis of the war’s most horrific battle: “The Somme (together with the battle of Ypres in July, 1917 where 70,000 British were killed and 170,000 wounded) marked the end of an age of vital optimism in British life that has never been recovered” (emphasis mine).

The seventeen highlighted words are perhaps the most tragic one could ever read. Something called vital optimism was lost in one swift catastrophic moment and never recovered.

Instead of a deeply ingrained belief that the best is yet to be many fell prey to the opposite perspective. Instead of a deep sense of hope, life became infected with melancholy, disincentive and a general sense of resignation. It is one thing to experience defeat, it is quite another to accept that victory can never again be achieved.

I fear the malady Keegan and MacDonald describe as having seized Britain in 1917 might be contagious in Canada in 2018. Coffee shop and water cooler discussions seem more rooted in cynicism and bitterness than optimism and hope.

Many have replaced a life built on great expectation with a sad acceptance of secondrate obligation.

The loss MacDonald describes is not primarily cultural or national in scope but personal. People are disappointed in themselves and the direction their lives are moving. Many have been immersed in all the noise of organized religious life but have lost track of what really matters and what God actually expects of them.

Some are well aware that the world is changing, that life has sped up and their options are exploding in number but their faith is not keeping up. Many are stuck, they feel a need to change but have no idea how.

They intuit that there is something deeper, a more satisfying way of life than they now have but seem unable to grasp it.

Mid-Course Corrections is a nudge for people who consider themselves Christian to rethink what it means to possess a vital optimism in God.

It means re-thinking Who God is and what He is up to. It means exploring the deep inner life and establishing values on what is found there rather than on one’s stock market portfolio or any other external measure of success.

It means giving oneself to bettering humankind and reaching for higher and higher values for all to experience. It means to actually believe that the road to greatness is serving and the way to be fully alive is to die to oneself.

Perhaps the most encouraging element in MacDonald’s thesis is his deep-seated belief that even when vital optimism is lost, it is not lost forever.

It can be regained through an intimate connection to a God Who is far from done with humankind.

He does not provide a self-help formula but does call his readers to consider what in their current world view needs to be left behind; what a life pledged to emulate Jesus looks like; and what just might be accomplished if we reach higher to build the kind of world God imagined.

The alternative of course is to accept the loss of vital optimism and embrace our melancholy.

Tim Schroeder is pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Kelowna. This