I’ve often been accused of being an optimist. An optimist is a person who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future; a person who believes that good must ultimately prevail over evil. An optimist takes a positive event and magnifies it, often minimizing the negative. It is true. I am an optimist. I’m always trying to look up. My faith fosters optimism. I believe Love is at the heart of things. I believe this Love is in the process of bringing about a New Age, a New World, where all people are “free to be” and where all live in harmony and peace. To me, that’s the essence of the Gospel message and to believe it to be the truth, makes me an optimist.
This belief, this faith of mine, has often prompted folk to suggest that I live in an “ivory tower.” To live in an ivory tower is to exist in a place where the problems of the world and the trials and tribulations of ordinary people are not known, experienced, or recognized. It is a great temptation for people of faith to dwell in such a tower and to look down and offer silly platitudes. “Don’t worry, God will reward you in the end.” I do not live in such a tower! I am not looking “down on life,” nor do I believe God “looks down” offering impractical and escapist solutions to life’s issues. I know, experience, and walk with my brothers and sisters everywhere the stoney path of a real world where “don’t worry” or “just believe” or “lean on Jesus” doesn’t cut it! God is not watching us from a distance as the song suggests, rather God is walking with us.
When Nikos Kazantzakis was a young man, a neighbor said to his father, ”…I think your son’s going to become a dreamer and visionary,…He’s always looking at the clouds.” His mother responded, “Don’t worry, life will come along and make him lower his gaze.” And his father had the last word, “Forget the clouds. Keep your eyes on the stones beneath you if you don’t want to fall and kill yourself.”
Look up and see the clouds. Look up and dream. Look up in the midst of the negative and find the positive. Look up as often as you can—but, be sure to lower your gaze and be aware of the stones. Look down,
and with Charles Dickens realize that “…our path in life…is stony and rugged…and it rests with us to smooth it. We must fight our way onward. We must be brave. There are obstacles to be met, and we must meet them, and crush them.” Look down and see the stones. Look down lest you stumble and fall. Look down and find God.
Look up. Look down. Look all around. Love is at the heart of things.
