How not to be cynical

It's struck me several times over the last few days what a cynical world we live in at the moment. The media delight in finding scandal and bringing down any institution that once commanded respect: the church, parliament, the police, banks. Now the media tell us that we can't even trust the media! This article by the most cynical of cynics, Charlie Brooker, just about sums it up (yes I know- or at least hope- that he's exaggerating for comic effect, but it still paints a pretty bleak picture of the world.)

What really gets me when I read this kind of thing is the comments people make in the discussion below. I hope they're exaggerating too. But they convey the idea of a world in which we can't trust anything or anyone, where everything is bad and we can't expect better, where there is no hope that we or anyone or anything else can make a difference. It's a very fatalistic viewpoint, and very depressing too. It diminishes the role of the individual in the world and effectively absolves individuals of responsibility of their actions- what else could they do, in such a messed up world?

Well if that's the best people think of the world, if there's no hope of anything better, I don't know why they don't just stop panicking about swine flu or [insert current disease scare here] and wait for it to reach them, or fill their pockets with cash and go for a walk through a drug-infested, gang-ridden inner city and wait for someone to stab or shoot them.

The world is a mess. We know that. But that doesn't mean that we should give up on it. Besides the stories of war and deceit, abuse and pain there are stories of hope and joy. The young man who was recently found alive after two weeks in the Australian wilds, after most people had given up hope, for example. We can't ignore all the terrible things that go on- and we shouldn't- but neither can we say "oh well, the world's a mess, but there's nothing I can do about it except make sure I live as comfortable a life as possible." People can make a difference.

Last Wednesday my cell group were looking at the passage in Philippians 4 where Christians are told to "rejoice in the Lord always." Someone pointed out that some Christians take this to ridiculous extremes, thinking that they should cry "Hallelujah!" when they bang their head! But without falling into this trap, we thought about how we can 'rejoice' when the world is in such a mess.

The point is, I suppose, that there is still someone we can trust in this downfallen world, and that's God. Human institutions, even the church can mess up, but God doesn't. We can rejoice in that. When Paul wrote that we should rejoice, he was under house arrest, chained to a Roman soldier, awaiting probable execution. Elsewhere he writes about all he has suffered: beatings, constant travel, hunger, thirst, midnight escapes. And yet he has learnt to be 'content in any and every situation." He knew what he was talking about. And he hasn't lost his faith in people either- his letters are full of commendations and expressions of love and thanks to his friends.

Perhaps we can take a hint from that. We can't ignore the fact that many things in the world are not as they should be. But it doesn't mean we should give up hope, or turn into cynical, fatalistic people who don't think we can make things any better so don't try. We can't restore the world to how it was supposed to be. Only God can do that. But he calls us to help in his plan for restoring the world, and humanity, and to rejoice in how great that plan is.