A Hopeful Hopelessness
Keeping Unwavering Faith In Uncertain Times
Hananiah [han-uh-NAI-uh]: He is one of the prophets in the bible. He is found in the book of Jeremiah — another prophet in the bible. The book of Jeremiah comes at a time when God is angry with his people. At this time, the tribes of Israel have long split. In Judah, there are now only two tribes — Benjamin and Judah. Their kings, one after another, have long led the rest of the people to idol worship. They do crazy things, some as crazy as burning their children in fire to appease idols.
Because their God is angry with them, their neighbours start defeating them to the extent that the people and their kings are reduced to either paying off their captors to stay in their own land, or worse still, they are exiled or captive in another land. Around this time, Babylon is the world superpower. Zedekiah is ‘king’ of Judah, but of course under these circumstances, only king in name and heritage.
Around this time there is a guy called Jeremiah. He does not mince words. He says things as they are and they are mostly about God’s anger to the king and to the people and how they have not seen anything yet. It is a tough many years for God’s chosen people. The people, the king and other prophets are angry with Jeremiah, because all he is hearing and relaying from God is grim. Around this time a new breed of prophets arises. One of them is Hananiah. He tells the people how “freedom is coming tomorrow” — how in two years, they will be delivered from the yoke of the Babylonian king. He is giving hope to the king, the people in captivity both home and abroad. Only that this is not God’s plan at the time.
Hope is always good — you might say, right? No! Not if it is false hope. Apparently, God’s plan for the status quo still has like 70 years to go — and Hananiah is busy saying, guys in 2 years’ time, we will be free of this nonsense! But Not!
If you are Ugandan, you probably know this similar predicament too well. Clearly unreasonable taxes, an impotent constitution, dysfunctional systems, peak unemployment, high handed forces, etcetera. What happens in such times is so predictable! Christian fellowships of all sorts crop up. Because that is what we are as a people. We thrive on hope. And this is not only in Uganda. This happens everywhere: As sure as the seasons change, when things are grim, there will crop up people who will be dealers in “hope”. I remember the first time I visited Nigeria two years ago, the economy was going through a very bad recession. On my trip from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to Abuja city, I distinctly remember noticing that all the billboards on the 40km highway — perhaps close to a hundred; were related to a Christian conference, fellowship or a crusade. That’s what we do as Christians. We sell hope — And boy do some pay premium for it! Not that there is anything wrong with it. Or is there?
Recently I read about the Stockdale paradox — a phrase coined by prof. Jim Collins in his bestseller — Good to Great. While coming up with this deep book about what sets apart the companies that are able to perform way above the market average for sustained period of years, his team interviews a series of business and people leaders. One of the guys he interviews is called Stockdale — A high ranking military officer in the US Army who was a prisoner of war for eight cruel torturous years during the Vietnam war. Hearing the admiral’s story on the incessant torture during his prisoner days was depressing to even prof. Collins — who knew the end of the story that the admiral had got out where many of the prisoners did not get out alive. Being the inquisitive researcher he is, prof. Collins asks Stockdale about those that did not get out — “Who are those that did not make it out?”
Stockdale responds quickly, “O, that’s easy. The Optimists!” Now Collins gets confused — I guess in his mind thinking: Dude, you have just mentioned that you never lost faith that you would get out — which kept you alive. And now you are telling me it is the optimists who did not make it?! Are you kidding me? I can hear him ask. So which is which?
Admiral Stockdale quipped to Collins:
“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: “We’re not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!”
Excerpt From: Jim Collins. “Good to Great.” iBooks.
Perhaps this duality of maintaining that unwavering faith that you shall overcome someday, while also facing the brutal facts of the grim reality you might be in — of a dysfunctional state of being or of the fact that change may not happen today, tomorrow, or next year; is what is hard to grasp. Yet it is possible. Maybe it is what we need. It is an optimistic realism. A hopeful pragmatism that does not dwell on hope as an end but on the knowledge that what is in the future is not in your hands, but something else is.
This can sound like a feeling of hopelessness. But instead, it is a notch higher than hope. It is faith — unwavering faith that does not shy away from the brutal facts. It is a feeling of victory before the victory — not that something will change today or tomorrow or next year, but that you shall overcome someday, somehow. It is a hopeful hopelessness, an optimistic realism. And we can apply it not just in our country’s or world’s outlook, but even better in our individual lives as well.
