James Henley

Treading the line between idealism and cynicism

I’m a bit of a dreamer - I have big ideas and big pictures in my head of what things should be like. The problem with this, though, is that when reality hits hard it can be so easy to lose faith in my dreams and instead fall into being overly cynical and critical.

This is a great little post from Tim Chester on the need to protect your idealistic spirit from being trodden down into a spirit of cynicism:

Ideals are not a stick to criticize others. Instead, we should use our ideals to define our direction of travel. We are sinners living in a sinful world so we know we will never completely arrive. We live by grace. But our ideals keep us pointing in the right direction. There will be compromises and failures, but we know what we’re aiming for.

And ideals should make us bold as we work for Christ. If you want to keep your ideals pristine and unsullied by real life then do nothing. That way nothing is ever tarnished because nothing is ever risked. But a true idealist pushes forward towards their ideals even if along the way there are failures and disappointments.