Truth and a Glass of Water

Pessimists seem continually irritated by optimists, and for this reason optimists are continually exalting themselves over pessimists. Recently, though an optimist at heart, I have become annoyed with both parties.

My reason is this: Both optimists and pessimists, by only seeing half a given situation, do a great injustice to truth. To be purely optimistic or pessimistic is to deny truth, to release what is real, and to deny part of truth is to deny all of it. A person who does not believe in God, for example, cannot see the world as it actually is; nor can a person who fantasizes about the world all the time believe God as he has revealed himself through His Word, and to a lesser extent, through his creation.

I do not assert that all optimists simply purposefully turn their eyes away from every painful situation; rather some people just see life through rosy lenses by nature. Nor do pessimists always bemoan the wretchedness of life; most of us are generally inclined by God-given, but fallen, personality to see things one way or another.

Still, all of us find ways to place ourselves above truth, and in so doing, we place ourselves above the Truth, who is sovereign and just and good. Many optimists see the glass as half full, but in so doing they refuse to see the air also contained in the glass, and the pitcher is not even within their reach. The trouble is that what “should be” in their view becomes what “is.” I am not saying that it is impossible to change the negative parts of life. But because of sin’s curse and sin itself, the world is a troubled place, and rightly so, because God is just. Besides, to fix anything in the first place, you have to recognize a problem.

Pessimists face their own set of problems. If a person sees only problems, he or she cannot possibly see God as he is, who is good, who delights in his children, and blesses them through Christ. A pessimist might spend so much time focusing on the empty part of the glass they forget to a drink of the water the glass is half-empty of.

The point is this: Our job as humans is not to choose truth, to choose realities. (I do not mean we should let go of creativity, for that is another world entirely.) We cannot, nor should we wish to, deny the truth of the Holy Triune God, who is perfectly in control, who blesses his children with good things, and strengthens them through hard times. To distance ourselves from reality is to distance ourselves from God. We cannot choose from truth what parts we believe in. The glass must be half full and half empty—it cannot be one without the other; nor can it be wholly full while simultaneously wholly empty.