Glass Not Half Bad and a Half or Not
Sometimes when I try to look on the bright side of things, people tell me that I’m “just being an optimist.”
When that happens, I’m tempted to reply with, “Well, you’re just being a pessimist.”
“No, I’m being a realist,” they respond. “You’re not seeing things clearly. You’re being an optimist.”
“No, I’m being a realist. You’re just letting your negative feelings get in the way. You’re just giving up on hope. You’re being a pessimist.”
I suspect that many of us have had or witnessed similar dialogues. We all want to consider our own perspectives the most realistic, unless we are rejecting reality, which isn’t necessarily always a bad thing when reality can be stranger and much more depressing than fiction. But most of the time, we want to be the rational ones. We want to be the ones to see things for how they are. We want to have an honest reading of the facts at hand.
Unfortunately, if we really want to be honest, the first thing we should admit is that we aren’t often realists. If being a realist is accurately understanding the situation without bringing our own negative or positive mood into our analysis, then the task is nearly impossible. Most of us aren’t very good at being cognizant of our emotions, the result of a culture that encourages us to push emotions down rather than acknowledge their presence. But even if you had a sense of what you were feeling at a given moment, how could you know if there weren’t other feelings influencing you that you weren’t aware of? Even if you were aware of all of your emotions, how would you know all the ways in which they influence your decisions and interpretations of events? If we’re being honest, we can’t really be honest in the way that we strive to be as realists. We are almost always bringing a positive or negative lens of varying degrees to view anything, especially if it is a personal matter.
This realization might frustrate you. You might feel a little angry that I am even suggesting it. You might feel the need to resist and lay claim to your own realism. “Maybe everyone else is emotional, but I’m not. I know what is really going on.” But that reaction proves my point. We can’t escape our feelings and get to realism, no matter how hard we try. The harder we try to pretend our emotions aren’t a factor, the more our emotions influence us.
So, should we even strive for realism in the first place? What exactly is the point? If we can’t be fully realistic, we should probably be optimistic. At least then we can force our way into a happier world. Maybe if we choose optimism, we can feel some joy in our lives. Of course, optimism and pessimism aren’t really choices. Sometimes, we just have a bad day. We’re in a bad mood. We can’t help but be pessimistic. And when we are in a deeply pessimistic mood, someone else’s spotless positivity doesn't help. Sometimes it makes things worse. Our desire to help others find the sunshine needs to be balanced with their desire to have someone walk with them through the rain.
When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers near the end of Genesis, he is the ultimate optimist. In Genesis 45:5, he tells his brothers that God sent him ahead of them to preserve life. “Sure you guys sold me into slavery and made my life absolutely miserable for a while, but it worked out well in the end! Don’t worry about it!”
This may have been the kind of comfort the brothers needed. This may have been the best way Joseph could think to frame his life thus far. Maybe he couldn’t help but be positive. Maybe he was so overjoyed with reuniting with his family and the chance to see his father again that his happiness overflowed into his memory. Everything took on a new light. God must have been involved, but I have a little bit of trouble with his interpretation. Did God take something evil and use it for good or did God send Joseph to Egypt in the first place?
If God took something evil and used it for good, does that mean God allows for injustice and then just tries to clean it up afterward, like a movie editor cleaning up a blooper in post? I don’t want to imagine the world being out of control and God being constantly on the back foot. I don’t want to imagine God forced to simply respond to bad news, as if God is finding out about the problems at the same time we are. That doesn’t fit into the comfortable idea of God’s sovereignty that I have come to know and love.
However, if God sent Joseph to Egypt in the first place, then God put Joseph through that. God put Joseph into slavery. God got Joseph put into prison. God made Joseph’s life miserable. What does this mean for human suffering? God causes it for some reason? What does this mean for evil? Does God somehow have a hand in the evil actions of people? If God is truly sovereign here, God is causing suffering in ways that may not have been necessary.
If these two options don’t seem so far off from each other or you don’t get the difference, that might prove the point even more. If we are following Joseph’s optimism, this looks like a very happy thing, but if we are looking at it without his joy, it looks like God either allowed or directly caused quite a bit of sorrow. God being responsible for this works well here, but it doesn’t always help people make sense of their suffering.
What if things hadn’t gone as well for Joseph, as is true for many people who experience exile and slavery? If people are suffering and dying under similar situations, they may feel like God simply isn’t with them. God doesn't love them the same way God loved Joseph. If we see our own sufferings fail to end up accomplishing something good, Joseph’s optimism not only fails to help us, but it might hurt us as well. Where is my great story of redemptive suffering? Where is my chance to reconcile with those who hurt me because God has raised me above them? Where is my joyful future?
In the Heidelberg Disputation, Luther writes, “A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.” As theologians of the cross, we strive to be realistic. We can see God in suffering, but we don’t have to like the suffering. We can see Christ’s cross, without forgetting the brutality of the execution. Optimism and faith can go hand in hand, as a powerful tool to help us see God at work, but these tools can become idols themselves. When we look only through a positive lens, we may see God where God is, but we may see God doing things that God isn’t really doing. In so doing, we lie about God.
I’m not saying Joseph was wrong necessarily. God may very well have done exactly what Joseph said. However, this doesn’t always apply. Sometimes we suffer because evil exists and afflicts us. Sometimes suffering isn’t redemptive. Sometimes there isn’t a moral to the story, it’s just dark, brutal, and sad. In striving to see God as God is, we must be cautious of inventing intentions and motives for God. A happy way of framing things isn’t always the best answer. Sometimes, we can’t escape the reality of the storms of life raging around us with no sunshine to see. However, we can always say that even if there is no light to be seen, God is with us in the darkness.
