A Hope Half-Full
Originally Published at https://unitedchurch.love/blog/hope-half-full
Everyone knows the classic question: What do you see when you look at the glass? If it’s half empty, you are a pessimist. If it’s half full, you are an optimist. The first time I saw this, I saw a glass that was only half full. Does that make me an optimistic pessimist? A pessimistic optimist? Or a realist with high expectations about how the world should be?
I argue the latter, though the adults in my life had other ways of describing it. Whiner. Ingrate. Complainer. To adult ears I might have been whining. I have children of my own, I am no stranger to the depth and breadth of how grating whining can be. No one likes to hear about what is missing from a cup you’ve worked so hard to fill up.
As a child, I assumed the world was striving toward equity, and we just hadn’t quite reached that ideal yet. I thought we all had the same goal. I knew we could reach that goal in my lifetime, if we all worked together!
Oh, boy.
Learning about what the world is actually like was like a daily sucker punch to my hopeful little heart.
When I learned about Jesus teaching that loving your neighbor as yourself was second only to loving God, to me that meant something I wouldn’t know the name of for many years: equity. We all get food. We all get water. We all get healthcare and education and love, because we are all people, all children of God. I saw what was missing, and it made me angry. I know there is enough in this world for a full glass of water for everyone. Why is it only half full?
I wasn’t ungrateful. I knew in my heart that the world could be better than it is.
Thanksgiving is the time of year when we are all supposed to step back, take stock in what we have been blessed with, and express gratitude. Science tells us that gratitude helps depression, anxiety, relationships, and, according to Google, it can even help you fall in love.The Bible urges us over and over to give thanks, Grandma tells us to be thankful for what we have, even wall hangings and memes urge us to ‘have an attitude of gratitude.’ I agree. Gratitude is important.
I have to say, as the girl who always wanted to know where the rest of the cup’s contents were hiding, it’s not always easy. Especially as 2020 has worked so hard to remind us that we are not as in charge of our destiny as we like to think we are. When George Floyd’s death made international news. I had to come to terms with the truth of what I, as a white woman, had had the privilege to not see: just how bad things really were for our brothers and sisters of color in this country.
I stopped.
I listened.
I tried so hard to learn. And I noticed something: Whenever people point out what is missing, there are counter voices, calling out for ‘gratitude,’ for ‘counting one’s blessings,’ not as a spiritual practice that leads to better mental health, but as a way of gaslighting those who are calling out injustice. Gratitude is changed from a virtue into something that is weaponized against those who are actually suffering. Toxic positivity is just that: toxic.
I believe God calls us to gratitude. I also believe God calls us to notice not only our blessings, but what is missing, too: that we might be a blessing to others and do the Holy work of ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven.’
I am grateful. Whether my glass is almost empty, or my cup runneth over, I believe God calls us to love one another, until we are on earth as it is in heaven, and everyone has enough to drink.
In the words of a wise Jewish man:
“We all do better when we all do better.” Paul Wellstone