Is your glass half full or half empty? Is today partly cloudy or partly sunny? Do you see the difficulty in every opportunity or the opportunity in every difficulty? Your answer to the questions probably reveals whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. I think George Bernard Shaw got it right when he said, “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist the parachute.”
Today is National Optimist’s Day, a celebration that has been on the books since 1909. Optimists’ clubs have been around for much longer.
“The first recorded “optimist” club in the world was really a “non-pessimist” club. Sir Richard Steele, an Irish-born English playwright, wrote of his membership during the early 1700s in a club of ten to twelve businessmen who banished members if they showed sourness of disposition, spoke impatiently to servants or exhibited any trace of pessimism. The group was called the Good Humor Club.
“The appearance of service clubs as we know them didn’t occur until the early part of the 20th century…People began grouping together to combine their talents and energies to bring about change. Those who believed they could change things for the better called themselves optimists.
“It’s unknown how many service clubs in North America before 1900 were called Optimist Clubs, although several are listed in rare old city directories and guides…A newspaper item appearing in a Watsonville, California, paper dated July 12, 1904, announced that “The Optimists is the name adopted by an organization of young men members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of this city…”
“On November 11, 1905, the 129 members of the Optimists Club of Chicago held their first annual banquet. The program lists no fewer than 14 speakers, plus the campaign remarks of six men who announced themselves as “candidates for the directorate.”1
Today, Optimist International boasts about 80,000 members. The international organization was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1919, uniting many local and regional clubs under one banner.2
Is optimism Biblical? The answer all depends on what your optimism is based upon. “Worldly optimism is not based on faith in God. Many unbelievers simply refuse to worry because life is more pleasant that way. “Don’t worry; be happy” is their motto. They may place their faith in any number of lesser gods, such as karma, denial, the “universe,” or intentional ignorance. This may work temporarily, but it is a misplaced optimism with no real foundation. Optimistic people find more enjoyment in life and are usually more pleasant to be around because they refuse to worry about things they cannot control. However, simply because a person appears optimistic does not mean that he has great faith in God or that her faith is appropriately placed.”3
Optimism based on the hope in Christ is the right way to go! Romans 15:13 says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
When the grips of negativity and reality begin to surround us, we need to find our strength in a Psalm like Psalms 43:5. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” This is so much more than the power of positive thinking. It is a faith based firmly in Christ.
1https://gatewayoptimists.org/a-history-of-the-optimist-club/
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_International
3https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-optimism.html
