To be an Optimist

Optimist: someone who always sees the bright side of any situation, no matter how impossible it may seem. 


Life is hard, guys.  Life is messy, chaotic, and dangerous.  It's full of insecurities, worries, stress, and tears.  Back when I was younger and more innocent, I used to think the world was a beautiful, wonderful, magical place.  But then I saw all the bad things in the world.  All the pain and death and terrible things. 


Why would God tell us to be glad and be joyful in such a place as this? 


If you look at the world the way it is, you can't. 


I always was (and still am) confused by all those people around me who had problems.  Whose lives were miserable.  People who were always sad and upset and worrying about things.  I never understood why they felt like that! 


Why would you waste time worrying over things?  Why would you be sad when everything is really okay?


Why is it that I always seem to be the one person who didn't have any problems, who was always happy-go-lucky, who had a bright future to look forward to?  Everyone else didn't seem that way. 


Then I figured it out.


I am an optimist.  I see the world through eyes that still see magic.  I don't let bad things get me down. 

Don't get me wrong.  Being an optimist doesn't mean I discard reality because I don't like what I see.  It just means when life gets rough, instead of hiding from the thunder I look for the silver lining on the clouds. 


Always look for that silver lining.  Because it will always be there.  Always. 


Do you know why? 


Because God is there.  He is the one giving us that silver lining.  When things get rough, He doesn't abandon us.  He gives us things to be happy about, if we only want to look for those things.


That's all about what being optimistic means.


It means trusting God.  Trusting that something good will come of it, that something better is on the horizon. 

I love being happy.  Who doesn't, right?  Being happy is the way God wants us to be.  That's why He made us and why He wants us to be with Him in Heaven someday.  To be happy forever.


But even optimists sometimes have those days when everything just seems impossible and you're depressed and alone and sad. 


Sometimes it's hard to climb out of those Pits of Depression and Sadness.  Sometimes we just want to stay there and wallow in it.  Sadness is romantic.  Sadness is much more romantic than happiness.  There's something deep about it, something dark and sensual and passionate about it.  Everyone nowadays seem to be sad, and they all have problems and life issues and it's all so glamorous.  All the great poets and painters and composers and people like that had problems and sad lives. 


So why not be like them and live a romantically sad life?


But that's a lie. 


There is nothing good about sadness.  It drags us down.  It's nothing more than an absence of joy.  Without joy, there can be nothing but sadness. 


And without joy, we cannot find God. 


As a writer and a hopeless romantic, I can't help but be attracted to lingering in sadness.  It's good for writing experience.  (And in thinking that, I just found a silver lining.  A slight one, but still a silver lining.)


Nothing from God is sad.  Only the Devil.  Sadness comes from a lack of God, and from sin.  If you truly love and follow the word of God, you will never be sad.  How could you be sad when you have God leading you?


An optimist is a person who has joy.  An optimist is a person who won't let the petty troubles around them drag them down. 


An optimist is a person who has found God.

I am an optimist.  I live life to it's fullest.  I love, laugh, and smile.  I don't let trouble get me down.  When sadness comes my way, I keep calm and carry on.  I can be practical and logical while at the same time being positive and joyful.  I'm not afraid to ask God to lift me up and give me strength.  It's who I am.


It's who God made me to be. 


Don't ever forget that.  Don't ever forget that you are loved, and that you were meant for something big.  You are a child of God!  Lift yourself out of the mud and look for the stars! 


Not everyone is an optimist, I know that.  Not everyone find it as easy to be happy regardless of everything around them.  I'm not saying you should be an optimist, but I'll be there for you if you ever need someone to chase your troubles away, and I'll have your back. 

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" - Winston Churchill


Be happy and give thanks!  God loves you.