Something Deeper than Just Positive Thinking

Scripture Passage that Caught My Attention Today: Lamentations 3:19-23 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

Lam. 3:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Observation: Times were admittedly tough, but the author of Lamentations still had hope.

Application: I’m not a big fan of the power of positive thinking, at least not in the rah, rah/cheer, cheer/everything’s-just-fine sense of the concept. It seems to me that an honest person needs to face situations in an honest way. Real concerns need to be noted. Things do not always work out just fine or in a way that is devoid of heart-ache.

But by the same token, things are seldom as bleak as they might appear either. Even in the midst of outright devastation there is still space, if one will allow for it, for hope and promise.

The writer of Lamentations understood such things. Times were tough. It would do no good to pretend otherwise.

But being realistic, the writer of Lamentations also allowed space for at least one thought of promise—“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

This, we are told, is what he called to mind. This is what gave him hope. A simple pair of verses—most likely from a song of faith in his day or at least intentionally set in prose—that he could summon up for consideration whenever things seemed especially dark.

That’s the kind of positive thinking that refuses to ignore, for example, that the way of life often includes the way of suffering just as surely as Jesus himself took the path that led him to the cross. But it also refuses to ignore the fact that although the way of suffering may at times be our path, it is not our destination.

That’s something, through Christ, that I like to call to mind. It is for that reason that I have such hope.

Prayer: Lord, whatever challenges we may at times face, help us to nevertheless put our trust in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Lamentations 3-5 and Revelations 15)