Last night, on the fifth night of Hanukkah, I was given a
very inspiring gift, the chance to meet someone I have been praying for, for
the past couple of years. She was diagnosed with “c” and a mutual friend had
asked me to include her in my prayers.
It was a true pleasure not only to meet her, but to see
that thank God her return to health is progressing along very nicely. As she
related to me her story, she punctuated it with much faith and optimism. I sort
of expected this, as I have heard that many, who have recovered, mainly managed
it by riding on a wave of faith and optimism. However,
her attitude also conveyed a tonal quality, which I had not at all expected. I
heard a “fighting spirit”!
To me, optimists were people who definitely made their
earthly efforts, but, their faith emerged from a mainly passive approach and
attitude. Even, this recognition was a paradigm shift away from what I believed
in my 20’s, some 20 years back. Then, I believed that work and effort basically
meant nothing. It was all up to God literally. I felt that hard work largely displayed
a lack of faith. Everything was given miraculously. This extreme passive faith,
at the time, colored my whole life perspective. Of course, it was encouraged along, by being surrounded by successful family members (on all
sides) whose harder times were either behind them or kept very discreet;
likely, out of concern for worrying loved ones. So, I never had anyone openly
model for me what a “fighting optimism” looked like. Also, a string of siblings who passed away young from a genetic disorder encouraged me to look more heavenward than
earthward for the “real answers”.
So, in my early 30’s I suffered until I came to realize
that even if my faith is passive, my accompanying work needs to be active; at
times, very active! Life was not working out like a magical carpet ride. This was a huge paradigm shift and rude awakening for
someone like me. Slogans like, “Courage is faith which has said its
prayers” began to resonate for me.
However, last night’s encounter was not only with a new
person, but with a new attitude - “a fighting optimism”! She smiled wide as she assured, “I am going to beat this!” In a world no longer pervaded with much
open prophecy, God often communicates via events, opportunities and out of the
mouths of others,
It’s interesting to me that I had this encounter on Hanukkah. Wasn’t
a “fighting optimism” what the Hasmoneans were all about? With the kind of passive
optimism I had harbored just a moment before my encounter, the Hasmoneans would have
waited out their oppression in hiding, praying and living as
Crypto-Jews, some 1,700 years ahead of the Spanish inquisition. This is not to
cast judgment on what occurred in Spain, as the circumstances were vastly
different and therefore, not open to comparison. It’s just to say that a
passive faith and optimism would have not achieved the great miracles of
Hanukkah.
A “fighting optimism” is rooted in the conviction that
yes, we must fight; yes, God wants us to fight; yes and most importantly, God
is with us in the fight. It’s even more than simply “courage is faith which has
said its prayers”. It’s that courage is the prayer!
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