You have to wonder, what’s the benefit of being anything but an optimist? It’s insanely hard sometimes, but being pessimistic is terribly unhelpful.
Days seem the fly by, but failures and times of worry seem eternal.
“When we fixate on the worst in something, we render ourselves incapable of fixing anything. But attend to the good in something — and we act towards the best in everything.” Ann Voskamp
Guys, faith is hard sometimes. Before this particular season of life — preparing for marriage (and all that entails), figuring out how to be a wife, starting a full-time job — it seemed easy to have faith. Sure, I have experienced trials like my perpetual foot injury or stressful semesters of design work, but still… it seemed easier to trust God’s promises, His presence in my hard times.
But life is happening. And certain aspects of life that have surfaced leave me desperate for the Lord to be physically near me, in my sight, to fold me in an embrace. Trusting Him and handing over my fears and life to Him has become more real. I recently read it put this way, “I need a Savior, I need a hero and am forever grateful that my hope has a place to land.” This is me.
The above quote from Ann Voskamp came from a post she wrote about optimism.
Because sometimes you can only be an optimist when you have a plan for the pessimist in you. So, you play out the law of Worst Case Scenario: What is the worst thing that could possibly happen?
And there aren’t any wolves, trouble, kids, hatred, debts, messes, betrayal, teenagers, disease, lack, hard times, untruths, diagnoses, or disappointment that can possibly separate you from the love of God. Nothing can separate you from Him.
So the Worst Case Senario? Is only the scenario of not wanting Christ the most.
So the Worst Case Scenario — is only a possible scenario if you want something more than Christ.
If you want Christ the most — there is no worst case scenario.
Live — and He’s using everything to shape you more into Christ and abundant life in Him.
Die — and you have eternal life in Him.
Abundant life versus eternal life — it’s impossible to lose!
You can’t lose.
When you have a plan in place for the worst — you never go to the place of worry.
And the plan for when all hell breaks lose is that Christ’s already broken the power of hell and to live is Christ and to die is gain, so the plan is always joy.
So… steps toward optimism.
