New Reminders: Optimism

What does it mean to be an optimist?  And why should or could anybody be optimistic when things are so bad all around us.  The government is a mess, the weather is bad, and things seem to be falling apart all around us.  Even the people we have to deal with every day are often grouchy or sad.  What have we got to be optimistic about anyway?

We humans seem to like to invent reasons to feel victimized.  We sometimes even set ourselves up to fail.  I heard a definition once that said that an optimist is a person who decides to go on a diet the day before Thanksgiving.  We might chuckle at someone so foolish, but don’t we do the same thing sometimes?

Of course, optimism alone does not get the job done.  We have to act to make it work for us.  In (2004), Fox News reported on a study that came from the Archives of General Psychiatry.  Researchers studied 1,000 people aged 65-85 trying to determine the importance of a positive attitude in dealing with life.  After almost 10 years of follow-up, researchers found that people who described themselves as optimistic had a 55 percent lower risk of death from all causes and a 23 percent lower risk of heart-related death.  The study found that optimistic people tend to be more physically active, drink less, and smoke less.  They also cope with stress more effectively. (E. Giltay, Archives of General Psychiatry, November 2004, vol. 61, pp. 1126-1135

A Danish study with 607 patients who had heart disease, also indicated that participants with more positive attitudes were 58 percent more likely to live at least another five years.  A positive attitude may not only extend one’s life, it can make the living of it more pleasant.  John Maxwell once said, “A happy person is not a person with a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.”

Philippians 2:5 states: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.”  In other words, let Jesus be your guide.  Think and do as He did.  Look for the goodness in people, and forgive their flaws.  Even though we are weak and self-defeating at times, we know that Jesus told us that he would send the Holy Spirit to help us.  We have the power to decide how we will respond to life.  Having an optimistic attitude, following the example Jesus demonstrated and asking the Holy Spirit to guide us can give us a pretty good reason to believe that life is worth living and even if we die young, we know we have a better life to look forward to.