“Dr. Waldron, Elsie needs help!” Elsie’s husband was adamant, almost angry, as he stared at me. On the other hand, Elsie stared at the floor, almost as though she wasn’t present. I had never met either of the couple before and was struggling just a little to figure out what was needed from me to help her.
“What is going on?” I asked as I flipped through her chart. This was still in the days of paper charts, and I headed to the lab section of her chart. There wasn’t anything too crazy that I could see there—her liver enzymes were a little elevated, but otherwise, everything seemed OK.
“It’s her drinking!” Her husband told me. “She is drinking more and more every night. She won’t go out except to get whiskey. She drinks till she passes out every night and has to have something every morning to get her started.”
“Is that true?” I asked Elsie, feeling like a judge overseeing a jury trial.
“Yes,” she said. Her face was emotionless, and I couldn’t tell if she wanted to be there or not.
“Do you want help?” I asked her. This was a loaded question. Many people who struggle with alcoholism aren’t ready to break free from its vice-like hold on them. Maybe Elsie was different.
“I guess so,” she said, indifferently. Once again, I couldn’t tell whether she wanted to be there or not.
“At the rate at which you are drinking, you will kill yourself within a year – maybe two at best – if you don’t give up alcohol entirely,” I told her. “If you want to, I will try to find you an inpatient program to detox you and get you off of alcohol.”
“She’s ready,” he husband said firmly.
When dealing with someone who drinks heavily, it is crucial that they don’t simply stop drinking without medical support. Abrupt cessation of alcohol use causes the body to go into withdrawal which can produce a state called Delirium Tremens and even seizures.
I stepped out of the exam room and to make phone calls. It is never easy to find a place for someone to attempt to rehabilitate from any kind of substances, and it was over an hour and a half before I found a facility that was willing to take Elsie and try to help her get off of the whiskey.
I sighed as I reentered her exam room. I had been afraid that I wouldn’t find anywhere for her to go.
I told them about the plan, and her husband nodded vigorously, while Elise continued to stare silently at the floor. “Can we pray together before you go?” I asked them, and when they nodded assent, I prayed with them, asking for freedom and Jesus’ presence in both of their lives.
They left my office with marching orders and directions on where to go. I had a happy glow about me for the rest of the morning, knowing that I had gone the extra mile and had really made a difference in this middle-aged couple’s life.
Around 2 pm, I got a call from the rehab facility. They hadn’t seen even a shadow of Elsie or her husband, which was surprising, since it was a bright sunny day and the facility wasn’t that far away. With a sinking feeling, I dialed the couple’s phone number.
“She won’t go!” Her husband told me. “She tells me that she told me this ahead of time. She’ll try to cut back, but she isn’t willing to go into a rehab facility or any such thing. I guess just tell them that we’ll let them know if she changes her mind.”
My nurse called the rehab facility and told them the bad news, and I sat down in my chair, stunned. What else could I have done? Was there a solution for Elsie—something different that I could have said that would have made a difference in her life?
About a year later, I received the sad news that Elsie had died at home. I was certain that things would have been different if she had gone to rehab and if she had given control to Jesus. None of that had happened, and I felt cynicism pushing into my heart.
Cynicism
We live in an age of cynicism. In ancient Greece, the cynics were an odd assortment of men who specialized in being grouchy and saying mean (they would have said truthful) things to people. They often dressed in rags and behaved in such a way that most of the polite Athenians did not want to be close to them.
Today, cynicism means a tendency to believe the worst about people and circumstances. Cynical people believe that all people are motivated purely by selfishness and that bad events will tend to prevail.
Many young doctors are idealistic and very hopeful. They believe that if they exert the utmost effort, they can make a real, positive impact on their patient’s lives. Unfortunately, as time goes by and they try their hardest and their patients don’t change, they can give up. These doctors still try, but they no longer really hope that their efforts will make much of a difference.
It seems as though people who get involved with politics often have the best of intentions. They see this as a path to changing society for the better. Unfortunately, as time goes by and the faces in charge change, the policies don’t really change, they tend to become cynical.
Sometimes this cynicism is directed against all politicians. Sometimes it is only anger directed against members of the party that opposes their party’s positions. Hope is replaced by cynicism.
Cynicism in the Bible
If there is a book in the Bible that seems to have been written by a cynical man, it is the book of Ecclesiastes. The Preacher, who we understand to be Solomon, lists all of the things that he endeavored in an attempt to find joy.
In chapter 2:17-23 Solomon describes work as futile. He finishes by saying, “For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:22,23)
He saw the world as being dominated by tyrants and there was little that the people could do about it. Solomon went so far as to say that political power was meaningless “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor” (Ecclesiastes 4:13).
In Ecclesiastes 6:6, he seems to disparage long life. “Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?”
Of course, he finishes his short book with the instruction to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. There is a blessing for those who choose to focus on God when they have a little bit of energy left and not, when they are old and jaded, like Solomon.
Later on, it almost seemed as though God had given up on His people. He still sent prophets to them, but He knew without a doubt that the people would refuse to respond. “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27).
Even in the New Testament, Paul told Timothy that the time was coming when people would no longer listen to sound doctrine. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” (2 Timothy 4:3).
By picking and choosing these passages, we can come away with a very gloomy view of the future and, more specifically, of human’s willingness to change. It seems there is little point of investing ourselves in the people around us. They are full of woe and are as likely to change as a chipmunk is to master differential calculus.
The Opposite of Cynicism
The opposite of cynicism is hope. It is the belief that the future could be better.
It is interesting that the Apostle Paul spoke of tribulations in the Epistle to the Romans, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:3-5).
We may not have reached the place where we glory in the trials we experience, but certainly, they should bring us these other things that he mentions. For, we grow in patience and experience, even as we deal with trials, but more than that, we come to realize that we have hope for tomorrow because we serve a great God.
The contrast in the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 teaches us much about hope. The father and the older brother were strikingly different in their attitudes.
The father had never given up hope – he knew that his son had failed him and gone far from what he knew was right and yet, the father still desired to see the prodigal come to himself and return home.
On the other hand, the older brother not only had no hope for his younger brother, but he was also angry with him. The prodigal had wasted his money, he had lived in sin, and now, he had returned home just because he was out of money.
Certainly, there was no reason to trust the younger son. Yet, that is exactly what our Heavenly Father does for us.
Look for Hope in the Right Places
Part of the problem is that we look for hope in the wrong places. A number of years ago, a presidential candidate ran for office under the slogan “Hope and Change,” and yet, even though he was elected, I imagine most folks did not feel that their lives were significantly changed for the better.
Pursuing the things this world values—political power and wealth is guaranteed to bring emptiness. This is Satan’s pattern—he always over-promises and under-delivers.
This was what he did when he tempted Jesus, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8). All of the things Satan offered, nothing compared with the glory that Jesus eventually received from the road that led to the cross.
In the same way, Satan would like to distract Christians from seeking the things that are valuable, and that will bring hope. Satan tells Christians that politics will not only change the world for the better, it is an easier way to change the world.
The Bible is clear that we build hope as we nurture our relationship with God and then work to help our brothers and sisters build that same relationship in their own lives. The reason that we can hope is not because people are so wonderful—we don’t have to live very long to realize that they aren’t. The reason we hope is because we serve an awesome, faithful God who walks with us through the worst of our trials.
Remember that We Have Undeserved Hope
Jesus’ messages about forgiveness make it clear that one of the major reasons that we have for forgiving others in our lives is that we have received great and undeserved forgiveness. The same is true for hope.
Each one of us was hopeless and without reason to expect to receive hope and we were still given a ray of light in the midst of our darkness. Maybe part of the reason that we have so much trouble hoping for good things for the people around us is that we do not remember how hopeless we were before we found grace.
If Jesus was able to bring hope to our hopeless existence, then certainly He can do wonderful things in the hearts and lives of others around us. The only people we should give up on are the ones that our Savior has given up on as well.
Small Efforts Do Make a Difference
I remember having a conversation with a young person who was planning to go into medicine and had a plan to go to a foreign country and serve the people there. As we were talking, an older man entered the conversation and shared that he saw little hope for change in developing countries.
The people in those countries just weren’t interested in getting better and didn’t do the minimum necessary to stave off things like worms and parasites. Doctors and nurses couldn’t make a difference in such an environment.
I could sense the heart of the youth sinking as this older man shared. He had experience, and he had given up hope. The sad thing was that he was also stealing the hope of someone who still had a desire to serve.
When I was in training, I had a surgeon tell me that family doctors didn’t really do anything. They simply kept their patients alive till their next office visit, whereas surgeons really “fixed” people—taking out (or off) the offending body part.
At the end of the day, small efforts do make a difference. I don’t do brain surgery, but I still can make a difference in someone else’s life— maybe just by spending a little time and listening and praying. This is true for all of us.
More than that, we come to realize that making this effort changes our own lives for the better. Jesus told the sheep that as they ministered to “the least of these my brethren,” they were ministering to Him.
Even if no one’s life is improved, our Savior knows our desires and feels our efforts, and will reward them someday.
A Few Things to Remember
When we face failures, we tend to move in one of two directions. Those of us who are optimists tend to believe that this episode was an isolated event and that the future is still bright. On the other hand, pessimists believe that failures are permanent, personal, and pervasive.
Pessimists believe that their failures are the result of intrinsic character flaws that they have and that these things affect all of their lives and are unlikely to change. Unlike the righteous man who falls to rise again, these people fall and lie where they fall, defeated at the outset.
When we are dealing with other people, we need to give them the same grace that we should give ourselves. They, too, are growing, and if they have a failure today, they will do better tomorrow. Maybe they will fail again, but they will at least “fail better.”
Conclusion
Cynicism is rife in our world. Many have given up hope for a better future, and it is understandable for those who have invested their hope in this world’s institutions. There is no real hope in government or in armies or in bureaucracy.
The song says, “Oh to have no hope in Jesus, how dark this world must be!” For, Jesus is the one who brings light into our darkness and allows us to continue, even when others fail us.
God is the one who redeems us. He is the one who sent the prophets, even though their messages were ignored, and the prophets were persecuted. He is the one who continues to hope for us, even when we have failed Him so many times in the past.
He is the reason we carry on. He is the reason that we have hope, not only for ourselves but also for our brothers.
