“Defiant Hope in a World of Cynicism”

No one sets out to be cynical, but it happens to many people. The Bible states that a cynical, scoffing attitude, will characterise the last days.

2 Peter 3:3
… scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

Paul Miller in “A Praying Life”
“Cynicism is, increasingly, the dominant spirit of our age… It is an influence, a tone that permeates our culture…”

Romans 14:23
… whatever doesn’t proceed from faith is sin

Hebrews 3:12
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Notice, an unbelieving heart leads us somewhere; it leads us “away from the living God.” Faith believes, cynicism is unbelieving. Faith trusts, cynicism refuses to trust.

Jesus commended us toward childlike faith (Matthew 18:3).

Maya Angelou
“There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”

Cynicism is not to be mistaken with criticism. A critical mind is different to a cynical heart. A critical mind is alert and humble. A cynical heart is jaded and arrogant. A critical thinker can be won over with a rational argument. But someone with a cynical spirit has developed a deeply rooted attitude toward others, toward life, and toward God.

In relation to the attitude of our hearts, life brings us to two stages but faith in Jesus brings us to a third stage.

Stage One - Idealism

At some point, childhood naivety gives way to youthful idealism. But given enough time, the polish wears off.

Cynics aren’t born, they’re made. In fact the only reason we become cynical is because we started out with high standards and high expectations. Cynicism happens not because our hearts were closed, but because they were once open, because the idealist in us was idealistic.

George Carlin
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

Anyone who believes God, anyone who makes a faith plan, anyone who believes to push the envelope, exposes themselves to the very real possibility of disappointment.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“the sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.”

Disillusionment is a gift because it dispels illusions.
Cynicism is a sickness because it destroys hope.

Stage Two - Cynicism

What happens when we grow cynical?

i. We know too much

Ecclesiastes 1:18
“The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.”

The longer we live, the more we see, so we become susceptible an attitude that says, “Seen it all before, heard it all before.”

ii. We project the past onto the future

Caitlin Moran
When cynicism becomes the default language, playfulness and invention become impossible. Cynicism scours through a culture like bleach, wiping out millions of small, seedling ideas. Cynicism means your automatic answer becomes “No.” Cynicism means you presume everything will end in disappointment.

iii. We become suspicious of people

Charles Spurgeon
“It would be better to be deceived a hundred times, than to live a life of suspicion”

iv. We stop seeing the good things in our lives

C.S. Lewis
“You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.”

Stage Three – Hopeful Realism


1 Corinthians 15:3–4
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day …

The cross of Jesus speaks of realism: the world isn’t perfect, people miss the mark, life can crush us.

The empty tomb speaks of hope: sin doesn’t have the final word, pain is not final, God works on the other side of disappointment.

The cross cures me of idealism, and the empty tomb cures me of cynicism.

Idealism can crush me. Cynicism can poison me.
But hopeful realism can keep me.

How to live from hopeful realism.

1. Plan again

Luke 5:5
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Every time we plan by faith after experiencing disappointment, it’s an act of defiant hope.

2. Trust again

Samuel trusted and appointed Saul as King of Israel, and it backfired.

1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

David would have never been appointed if Samuel had allowed disappointment to make him cynical.

3. Look again

Problems can consume our perspective. But we must keep in view, that on balance, we have more to be grateful for than to complain about.

Psalm 16:6
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

4. Go again

If we don’t deal with cynicism in our hearts, we become armchair critics: high on opinion, low on participation.

Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…

Conclusion

As followers of Jesus, we’re not naïve to pain (Christ died for our sins), but nor do we lose hope (he was raised on the third day). That understanding, causes us to be people with defiant hope in world of cynicism.