Beating CynicismSample

The Antidote to Cynicism: Hope

When I was at my most cynical, the thing that died within me was hope—hope that the future would be better than the past, hope that the next time could be different, hope that my heart would feel again. Cynicism snuffs out hope. 

That leads us to the ultimate antidote for cynicism, which happens to be the foundation for the Christian faith: hope. The concept of hope is a thread that runs through the scriptures and is at the epicenter of the gospel. Sometimes people struggle with the Bible and Christianity because it’s so real. How can Christianity be founded on hope when so much of the story is violent, oppressive, and bleak?

But the Bible reminds us that God understands our world. God sees how violent we can be toward one another and toward ourselves.  But instead of letting our inhumanity toward God and each other be the final word, God entered the mess in human form through Jesus and conquered hate with love. We threw the worst of humanity directly at Jesus: hatred, abuse, ridicule, rejection, and death. And God turned it into life—not just life for himself but also life for us.

The cynics thought they were winning on the last Thursday of Jesus’s life. They were certain they had the final word on Friday. Despair had won. Even the disciples thought so. But nobody saw Sunday coming. Nobody saw hope rising. No one saw love breaking out from the ashes of hate. Nobody saw Jesus coming back.

The thrust of the gospel is that Jesus sees your hate and meets it with love. He sees your despair and counters it with hope. He sees your doubt and lobs belief back at you again and again. That’s the power Paul speaks of in Romans 5:8.

In light of the Gospel, then, cynicism doesn’t have to be a permanent condition. It’s a choice. Ultimately, life doesn’t make you cynical. You make you cynical. 

Cynicism melts under the relentless hope of the gospel. 

Bitterness can’t linger under the relentless assault of love.

Hope cannot die if an empty tomb empowers it.

Prayer. Dear God, I admit it—I have stopped hoping, stopped believing, and stopped trusting. But you haven’t. And because you haven’t, I don’t want to stay the way I am. Give me the courage to hope again, trust again, and believe again. Amen.