A reflection by Bishop Sloan (November 2008 Apostle):

November 2008

Doughnuts and Holes

I get a lot of things in the mail. Some of it's sort of interesting, some of it's a complete waste of postage and time, some of it I'm glad to receive, some of it's just odd. This morning I got a newsletter from the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory, an Episcopal religious community. Usually I just toss newsletters from churches or organizations I'm not familiar with, or if I have time I'll look through to see if there are any cartoons. But this one had a black-and-white photo capturing some of the serenity of a mountain stream and beside it a haiku. I figure everybody has time to read a haiku, so I read it.

 The contrast between the beauty and serenity of the photo and the dread of impending tragedy in the poem left me confused, and I tossed it into the trash. It wasn't until I read my e-mail that I started to figure out a little of what was bouncing around in my head.

 I get a lot of e-mail too. My friend Lipmon Moy in Huntsville e-mails me the Forward Day by Day every morning, and this morning's meditation quoted someone as saying, "The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that an optimist looks at the doughnut while the pessimist sees the hole." The writer observed that the disciples looked at the thousands who'd followed Jesus as the hole, but Jesus regarded the five loaves and two fish as the doughnut.

 I retrieved the newsletter from the trash and read the haiku again, this time paying attention to the power of words: "gulch," "rumors," and "afraid." The person sitting by the mountain stream might just as easily have written he was by a creek bed, listening to the glory of God's Creation as the winds blew and the thunder rumbled and knowing that the rains would bring a rush of water to fill the creek by which he sat. But instead he looked for the hole in the doughnut; instead of enjoying the moment, he looked for doom. If he'd written a pleasant little poem about serenity and balance, it would not have been published. It's as if we are yearning for dread and doom, as if we can hardly wait for something to be wrong so we'll have something to talk about.

When I've had enough of listening to the news, I listen to sports talk radio. The Crimson Tide is undefeated and ranked #2 in the nation, but all I hear on the radio is how Auburn has come onto hard times. You'd think there would be a little airtime to congratulate the Alabama players and coaches, but there's just endless speculation about the Auburn coaches and What's Gone Wrong. Are we just addicted to negativity?

 Now this may not be a surprise to any of you, but just in case you don't know: I am an optimist. There-I said it: unabashedly, without shame or remorse, I am openly and proudly an optimist. I prefer to look for the good, to assume the best, to give thanks for what we have. Not only that, but I am an idealist; I've even been accused of being a bleeding-heart do-gooder. Of course I might have thought Jesus had been out in the sun too long if I'd been there when He told the disciples that they were going to feed 5,000 people with a couple of dried fish and some bread, but on the whole I have to say that I am an optimist because that's how I choose to look at things. I would rather focus on the solution instead of the problem, rather be grateful for the full half of the glass than be distracted by the empty half, rather trust in the goodness of Creation and of God's children than live in suspicious dread.

 I'm not sure about this, and I could be wrong, but I think that my choosing to be an optimist has something to do with how I choose to be faithful. Other people will make other choices, and I'm not saying that pessimists are unfaithful or unchristian, but my determination to be optimistic helps me rely on my faith and on the grace of God.

 I get a lot of mail and a lot of e-mail. People send me their thoughts, their opinions, their hopes, their fears. We live in fearful times, with the Church in controversy, the economy on a roller coaster, and politicians yammering at us in increasingly strident tones. I'm not such a Pollyanna that I don't think there's anything bad out there, I just believe that our faith in God is our most powerful tool against fear and despair, and that God's grace trumps all other cards.

 I believe that we Christians have been entrusted with the glad Good News of the love of God in

Jesus Christ our Redeemer and that we are stewards of the Gospel, not to hide and protect it but to proclaim it joyfully and faithfully. I believe it is our assurance of the love of God in the Gospel of

Christ that gives us hope and makes our lives worth living when calamity or disaster does come. We are witnesses to the Resurrection of our Lord, and we are called to live in hope, not in fear.

 Sisters and brothers, please allow me to suggest that our faith does not call us to huddle in a gulch listening to rumors of doom and fearing a flood that may or may not come. If a flood comes, as happens from time to time, I trust we have enough sense to move up the creek bed so we're not washed away and enough faith to know that the waters will recede, as they always have and always will. In faith and in hope, we put ourselves, our families, our Church, and our nation in the hands of God.

The Rt. Rev. John McKee Sloan