To see purpose in the tragic: the second faith characteristic listed in Alton’s letter is a clear indication that faith is a survival mechanism. The prerequisites to see purpose in the
tragic is the ability to forgive even great injustices and to face them with
humility—accepting that purposes may be set beyond immediate human
understanding. When one looks at the
development of man over many thousands of years one characteristic would seem
to gain marked ascendancy. Those who
reacted to extreme hardship feeling they have all the bitter answers, victimized,
resentful, cynical, discouraged, and as destined losers would seem to be
greatly disadvantaged by those people willing to forgive and move forward. Those people who are determined to live optimistically,
generously, filled with hope and happiness and as destined winners are not
exempt from tragedy. But they have faith
(you may unkindly call it rationalizations or conjured fictions) that out of
tragedy good can come if not immediately in the long run. That they cannot personally see what purpose that
might be is accepted in humility. In many ways the approach to tragedy is a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Embittered
losers seldom out-perform hopeful winners.
The opposite of faith is disbelief.
The inability to suspend disbelief is a handicap of major
proportions. Belief that there can be
redeeming purpose to even tragic circumstances turns out to be the surest path
to practical positive outcomes and the ability to thrive. Starkly put, one is given the choice of either
seeing tragedy as dead-end and one-dimensional or as an occasion to exercise
forgiveness, humility, and an appreciation of mystery within the spaciousness
of hope.
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