Glass half full

Is there hope for the world?

Let's be honest, despite all the words spilled over the age-old glass-filling conundrum, it becomes a bit pointless in real life. If someone poured me a glass of water only to halfway I'd wonder why they stopped pouring. Who does that? There's plenty of water in the jug and more in the tap. It'd be like someone running half of a 100m sprint. "That'll do for now." Imagine having these philosophical arguments then:

"He only ran half of it."

“Yes but what a half!"

And if I found half a cup of water on the bench I'd think someone hadn't finished it. Probably one of the kids. It’s alright, Dad will clean it up.

But while we’re here, we may as well play around with the dodgy metaphor a bit. How do you see the world? Glass half-full? Or empty? Generally good? Or generally bad? Are you hopeful and optimistic? Or do you look at the world and think "We've stuffed this."

People often say in these conversations that one side (theirs) is being realistic and the other isn't seeing clearly. You've got your head in the clouds. Or, You're clouded by the negativity in your head. But realistically, there's a ring of truth to both sides.

Take the water issue. My practical issues up there were purely based on the fact that where I live there's an abundance of clean water. I can turn on any number of taps at my place and clean water comes out. I could technically even drink the stuff that comes out of my rainwater tank to water my plants.

A glass-half-full kind of person here in Australia could look at the world through their own lenses and think "This place is great. There's shelter, safety, clothes and shops, plenty of food, the internet, schools for my kids, doctors when I'm sick, transport to anywhere in the world—what more could a person want?"

At this point we need a glass-half-empty person to interject with "What are you talking about? You're living the dream! You're probably in the top 5% of the wealthiest people in the world. Most of the world has to live on less than $1 a day. Shelter and safety? What about all those millions of refugees? and all the families living in slums? And all the political corruption in the world? And you might have it good now but what about your kids and grandkids? We're screwing up the environment, we're making it impossible to buy a house even here. And there are people with depression and anxiety and arthritis and cancer and people getting bullied and people getting robbed and people who can't get a job and... Well just think, 780 million people in the world can't access clean water at all. At all."

Which is all true as well.

If the world was a glass half full, we would drink the water bit and the rest of the world would just get drips. If they can get there before even that evaporates.

Realistically, we need to listen to both the optimists and the pessimists. There's both good news and bad news for the world. Yes it's in a sad state. We need to acknowledge that before we can do anything. It doesn't help to ignore the pain. But it also doesn't help to make our home there. There's always hope.

I sincerely believe that, with some divine help, we can create a better world. We can work through the pain and problems and find ways to bring peace and joy, beauty and wholeness. For everyone. That's the hopeful part. The scary part is it won't happen unless it hurts us somehow. There's no way to bypass the pain. None of this is an easy fix. We have to slowly work through it all, with humility and courage and unwavering hope. Some of it will take years, decades, lifetimes.

We really can create a better world.

I don't think we can get there on our own. But there are promises all through the Bible about this stuff, God telling us over and over again "I will never leave you nor forsake you.... Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be with you..." God loves this world and is in the business of restoration, always working to bring wholeness and peace wherever we'll let him, not often with fanfares and trumpets, but with the simple acts of people like you and me. Transforming systems, families and groups, powerfully and discreetly, from the inside out and the bottom up. "When you gave a cup of water to the least of these, you gave it to me." God is the one who doesn't draw attention to himself but quietly transforms the whole place. That's basically what I'm trying to do as a groundskeeper - using gardens, tools and conversations. Maybe you could join in that kind of work too?

We need to see the world clearly, and walk forward with hope. We need people on both sides of the glass discussion to listen and work together. We need to find ways to share the water around.