By Ryan Borowicz
As we are gearing up for a massive capital campaign here at Appleton Alliance Church (goal of 25 million dollars), I’m finding it harder and harder to remain optimistic about the chances of this dream becoming a reality. My general nature is to be a realist, though my wife simply says I’m “Negative” towards a lot of things. And if you didn’t know me ahead of time, you would probably think I am negative too. I call it being “Realistic” because I’m the type of person that if I understand something and believe it can happen, then I will become very optimistic about it, and not at all negative. But it’s the understanding process that can take awhile for me and can be perceived as negativism.
Well thankfully, our Senior Pastor doesn’t seem to have a “Realistic” bone in his body. He’s 100% optimism. And over the next few months I know that I am going to need to spend as much time around him as I possibly can so that his optimism can rub off on me. We are definitely affected by the company we keep, and since I am fairly introverted and like to spend a good deal of time by myself, my own pessimistic or realistic thoughts can cloud out any optimism floating around in my mind. In fact, I’ve even been looking for a book to read on being more optimistic in order to help with pushing me in more of a positive direction with my thoughts.
So where do you stand on this? Are you eternally optimistic? Or are you more like me, looking for holes in everything before you put your trust in it? How about the people you spend the most time around? Another positive for me that keeps me from always being pessimistic is that my wife is very optimistic and always initially sees the good in people and situations. And I’m often reminded in my thoughts about Jesus’ words when he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” (John 20:29)
