Offering Some Optimism

Odell Behan was a fixture during my growing up. We got to know him because he was the butcher at Jett’s Store in Hornbeck where we bought our groceries. Jett’s store eventually went the way of a lot of small-town grocery stores, and Odell had to move on to other forms of livelihood. He drove a school bus to Hornbeck High School for many years. My older brother Wayne moved to Hornbeck when he got married and attended church with Odell for over forty years.

When I go home, one of the things that Wayne does is update me on deaths in the area. It’s hard to keep up with these when you live at a distance. On our visit in August, he told me that Odell had died. As we reminisced about Odell’s life, Wayne said that Odell had a characteristic line that he used during times of drought. As the men stood around at church griping about the dry weather and how it was burning up their gardens, Odell would always say, “Fellows, you know, today we’re one day closer to a real good rain.” You’ve got to admire an optimist like that.

Optimism is an important attitude. Without it, happiness is a hard thing to maintain. Optimism helps us cope with difficulties. Wallace Stegner grew up out West in the early twentieth century. His father never had much success in life and so was always picking the family up to make another move to chase another rainbow. Stegner said of him, “He was a rolling stone who confidently expected eventually to be covered with moss.”

Optimism helps us cope with defeat. It’s easy to retreat into our caves of despair when defeat comes. I admire one politician that I heard about. He was the losing candidate in a two-man race. When asked how he had done in the election, he said, “I came in as runner-up, and my opponent came in next to last.”

When the children of Israel came to the brink of the Promised Land, Moses enlisted 12 spies to check out the land. The 12 men were gone 40 days before coming back to give a report. All of them agreed that the land that they had explored was a rich and productive land, but that is where their agreement ended. Ten took a very pessimistic view of their prospects of conquering the land. They cited things like strong residents of the land, fortified cities, and a land that devoured its inhabitants. Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, acknowledged the challenges in the land but were very optimistic about the prospects of taking the land. They cited the promise and the protection of God. Their optimistic counsel was swallowed up by the natural pessimism of the people. As a result of that pessimism, Israel was sentenced to wander in the wilderness until all of the pessimists had died.

Pessimism is a deadly thing that hinders our usefulness to God. It’s easy to be pessimistic during a drought, but, to quote Odell Behan, “Remember that today we’re one day closer to a real good rain.”