It's A Wonderful Life

It occurred to me while watching my most favorite Christmas movie, that maybe I wanted to give up being cynical. Cynicism protects you from being disappointed, but only in theory. I'm thinking that actually it gets in the way of faith and joy. After all, if you're busy being a cynic you don't have much faith or hope that good things are going to happen and then you don't even have joy right in that moment. I was also thinking about my blog and that a lot of my posts are rants about "crazy people." I bet there a plenty of other blogs out there about "crazy people" that are really talking about me!

Along those lines, it occurred to me a couple weeks ago that I might be a little bit judgey as well. As I was driving through a neighbor hood between my kid's school and the store, I was noticing how much or how little trash people had put out! I was all, "Oh, those people are so environmentally evil! And those people are so environmentally righteous." I had to laugh right out loud at myself because that is crazy talk.

So, trying to pull these seemingly random thoughts together, I decided that this year the thing I could do to make God's named "hallowed" in my part of the world was to drop the cynicism and really live with faith that God is good and that I can join him in his campaign of goodness. I was watching another of my favorite movies, The Return of the King, and thinking, not for the first time, what amazing leaders Théoden and Aragorn are. They lead by inspiring. They are realistic about their odds of living, let alone winning, and yet they do not despair. They do not become cynical. They do not scare their men into following them and laying down their lives for the good of many. They fill their men with hope by their own example in the darkest of times. They rush forward to do good at the possible expense of their lives. That's who I want to be. There is no room for cynicism if you're going to grow hope your heart and the hearts of those around you.

On the upside, as I was telling Christi and Ginger about my desire, need, to become less cynical, we concluded that sarcasm is a different thing altogether, and I don't need to give that up at this time!