negativity, positivity, realism and hope ..

there's more than one side to life
it can whack you in the face one day, and inflate your ego the next ..

there's this thing i subscribe to
clarify
simplify
balance
centre

basically that translates into
see things for what they are based on the understanding i have; ie. be reasonable in my estimations
dump the excess, the unnecessary, the distractions
balance what's left
bring my self into balance

the balancing act is integral

i ran over this article today pointing to a book
a commenter referenced another book that took an opposing view to the article
and, being a bookworm, i ran to read reviews ..
interesting
both of them

the one posits the superiority of a positive approach, finding the silver lining
the other critiques this approach, identifying it as a false echo of reality, a denial, kinda  ..

i hear both sides
and i see the value of both ..
and i'm left with balance
.. .. . .      .

as a follower of Jesus i need to be mindful of his attitude and approach, since he's my rabbi

in the biblical Ecclesiastes ( chapter 3 ) is found the famous passage ' there's a time for .. '
as in, a time to laugh, and a time to cry, etc.
the comeuppance of that thinking is that life invokes both the good and the bad

Jesus, in his wellknown discourse on the mount, blessed the hurting, the underprivileged, the mourning and down-spirited, as well as those who long for righteousness and work for peace
his sense of balance inculcated both suffering and persecution as well as a positive, hopeful approach
    ( Matthew 5-7 )

richard rohr made the wise comment that Jesus lived perfectly within the balance of humanity in it's dilemma ..
" The cross was the price that Jesus paid for agreeing to live in a mixed world that was both human and divine, bad and good, simultaneously broken and utterly whole. He agreed to carry the mystery and not to demand perfection of God's creation or of God's creatures. He lived fully on the horns of the human dilemma and made it work for us ... It is in that sense only that Christianity is the ' only ' way to be 'saved' . "
... .

a balanced approach demands both a seeing of the reality of a broken and suffering world, as well as the ' hope ' of the Kingdom in which love rules
to deny either, in my view, is to do injustice to the reality of hurting people and/or to the God in whom i live and move and have my being

balancing those realities on the fulcrum of Jesus and the cross is my goal, my personal reality
to do otherwise is to fall into the whimsical fancy of cheering-on the houseless and the poor, for example, as if their condition was merely transitory or a not-so-serious lifeexperience
or to explode it as if it was ' the end of the world ' with no way out

Jesus life and death and resurrection from the dead provides me with the ability to accept and embrace the deathness of the world in which i live and, at the very same time, the reality that real life includes the divine, the spiritual, the hope of life after life ..
death and life
in balance
fallenness and reconciliation
in balance

¿ how can i morn with them that mourn, embrace their pain as if it were my own
   which i believe jesus expects of me precisely
or rejoice with those that rejoice
if i pretend that either the pain inback of the mourning, or the joy that sparked the rejoicing are to be downplayed, like they're dreaming, or psychotic  ?
disingenuous, that is ..

hope is the switch
hope
in God
creator
redeemer
liberator
lover

hope allows me to see the pain for what it is, embracing it as real
while not allowing it to overwhelm, as if it was the final word on life
the end

in the end, love wins
and i am included in that

and so are you

this world is so outofbalance
i am so outofblance

thank God for jesus' balancing act of the cross