Open Letter to Cynics

We hear people sometimes wondering why the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control -- are so hard to feel in our hearts and display in our Christian lives.

I think I know part of the answer: The role of cynicism in our culture and our own lives. John Stuart Mill spoke about "the tyranny of public opinion." And today a prevailing attitude in our society is cynicism. It dominates everything we hear. We have "crowned it with many crowns" and let it rule us. We have let it dictate how we experience our culture. It has become a tyrant with unlimited rule over us.

Remember Lily Tomlin? She said once, "Every year I get more and more cynical, and I still keep falling behind!"

The most famous cynic was Diogenes of Ancient Athens. Around 400 BC. He lived in a tub on the streets -- taught that extreme poverty was the highest virtue and nothing else had any good.

We are becoming like him. Because of our cynicism we are becoming spiritually impoverished. That's because cyncism is a a thief -- a robber that reaches into our hearts and minds and steals everything good -- love, faith, hope, joy -- and along with those things, the expectation and acceptance of God's goodness.

Everything God wants to give us is leeched away through cynicism.

Want to stand out in the world and let others see God's grace in our lives? Want to be different from the world? Want to stop being conformed to the world's mold and be transformed by the Holy Spirit?

Then we can start by rejecting cynical attitudes and expressions. Deleting it from our internal computer. Expecting and accepting God's undiluted and unlimited goodness....and pay it forward...(we can't pay it back)...so we pay it forward to others!

What a shock they are in for! It's a whole other way of looking at life! Maybe all Congressmen are not crooks -- now that's a novel thought!

Maybe some people have good, pure motives, at least some of the time. Maybe we don't always have to follow the money....Maybe some contractor does a reliable job and actually gives us an honest quote on the materials. Maybe someone on welfare is not cheating the government.....

Diogenes was also known for walking around with a lantern through the streets of Athens, day and night, looking, hopelessly, he said, "For just one honest man."
(That's when he wasn't curled up in his tub.)

If he had been an honest man himself, he could have just looked in the mirror.

He should have started with himself. What a wasted life...and look at what we are wasting. Let's start with ourselves.