Hope for Cynics

A Ministers Message from Rev. Dr. John Regan, Executive Minister
jregan@fccedmond.org 405.341.3544

If you’ve gotten a little cynical lately, I get it. Greed, selfishness, and dishonesty get most of the airtime these days. After a while, expecting the worst starts to feel like being realistic.

With the midterm elections approaching and so much anger and distrust wearing us down, we think it’s a good time to explore how hope might help us rebuild trust and find our way back to each other. September 27 through October 18, we’ll spend four Sundays at First Christian Church Edmond in a series we’re calling Hope for Cynics. We’ll draw from scripture, psychology professor Jamil Zaki’s Hope for Cynics, and Jane Goodall’s The Book of Hope.

Zaki’s research at the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab suggests we often miss how willing others are to help, cooperate, and be generous. It’s what leads to cynicism. He gives us a useful new assignment – become “hopeful skeptics” instead of cynics. This means asking questions, checking the evidence, and remaining willing to revise our assumptions including the idea that “everyone is selfish” or that “nothing will ever get better.”  

Sure, some of our wariness we come by honestly. But our worst assumptions about people could stand a few questions, too. Because if we’ve already decided nobody cares, it’s easy to stop trying. Believing people can work for the common good gives us a reason to get involved.

Zaki says “sometimes seeing someone get to work is enough to make us reconsider what’s possible.”  His friend and fellow scientist Emile Bruneau said “The best way to activate a communal force is to be a community.” Here at First Christian, we take what is broken seriously while refusing to believe it is the final story or the only possible future.

Following Jesus calls us to stay open to what God may yet do in and through people we’re tempted to write off, including ourselves. Faith gives us reasons to keep showing up for each other, and church gives us a community of people to practice with.

Goodall spent a lifetime confronting problems big enough to flatten anyone. She found hope in forests growing back, young people refusing to quit, and people holding on through terrible things. As she put it, “Hope is contagious. Your actions will inspire others.”

Cynicism is easy on our screens, but hope can grow when we get close enough to listen, work alongside someone, and let people show us who they are.

So if you’re tired of the outrage and wondering how to stay hopeful without looking away, come explore Hope for Cynics with us. Maybe we can borrow courage from each other and catch a little bit of hope.