Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In an old bid entitled Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy, comedian Louis C.K. mocked just how crabby people can be today, despite living in an age so much better and easier than any other time in human history. Despite incredible technological innovations like smartphones and airplanes, we still find ways to be upset.
Well, in a similar way, National Review senior editor Charles C.W. Cook recently wrote about the lack of optimism in contemporary America, even amidst such great advancements. In an essay entitled Against Misery, Cook, a self-identified atheist, claimed Americans have reason to be optimistic and to push back against the doldrums of contemporary despair. Here's what he wrote: quote, Per Gallup, 81% of Americans are either very or somewhat satisfied with their lives. while just 20% are either very or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in the United States in general.
And why wouldn't they be when, day in, day out, our leaders declaim and condemn and lament the awful state of things, end quote.
Well, this staggering gap that's been identified by this Gallup data is worth exploring. Cook noted that even amidst the negative views about our country often portrayed by political leaders in the media, Americans are still pretty happy about their lives, and they should be given that we have the strongest economy in the world, the most durable constitutional system, the strongest military, we're the home of the world's tech industry, among other critical factors. Cook thinks that the gap is attributable largely to the fact that most respondents to the poll, whose lives individually are good, are answering on behalf of people they think are unhappy, many of whom may not even exist. And that's because Cook worries, and I quote, the electorate has adopted a worldview that renders satisfaction philosophically unattainable, end quote. And yet, for a majority of Americans to like their own lives but overwhelmingly not like the state of the country is, as Cook put it, absurd.
After all, we're Americans that live in America.
Well, there's much to appreciate about Cook's analysis, including his observation that people think and operate within the framework of a world view. There is, however, more to say from the framework of a distinctly Christian worldview. specifically that our options are never merely between optimism and pessimism. Christians are right to lament moral collapse, but they should never be reduced to despair. At the same time, Christians should not be merely optimistic and cheerful or just merely against misery.
Instead, as Paul wrote, God's people should abound in hope. And this is not the kind of hope wrongly defined as wishful thinking that's used by political campaigns. As one political scientist wrote, such ideas are quote-unquote gas giants without necessary subjects and objects and leaves us all to ask, well, hope for what and in what exactly. The great commentator William F. Buckley, junior, liked to say that the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep.
Now of course Christians know who the living water is that brings regeneration. Peter described it in his first epistle, a letter full of hope, with both a subject and an object for hope, that Christians are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul also underscored the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord throughout his epistles, especially in his prayer for the saints at Ephesus that's recorded in Ephesians 1.18. There Paul prayed that they might, quote, know what is the hope to which he has called you, a hope that he also anchored in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Paul did not stop there.
Christ is not only resurrected and proving victory over death, he's reigning over all creation. He is Lord. He's seated far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, end quote. Though Cook certainly makes a compelling case for optimism in our time and also the need for a revival of what William Wordsworth called the happy warrior, his analysis is based on the temporal, not the eternal. And that kind of hope is vulnerable to corruption and loss.
Even more, calls to optimism are ultimately unfulfilling and unsatisfactory because they're untethered. From the only true source of contentment. that only hope can provide. To learn more about the biblical idea of hope and how it can ground us for the challenges of this cultural moment, check out Truth Rising the Study. And just for lessons, Truth Rising the Study equips Christians to be people of courage in this time and place.
Visit colsoncenter.org slash study to learn more and to learn how to become a small group facilitator. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carrico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org.
In a culture that tries to redefine what it means to be human, the church can lead the way in restoring a God-given understanding of human identity. The Colson Center's mission is to equip Christians for this work, but we need your support. When you make a gift to our ministry by May 8th, we'll send you a copy of Dr. Carl Truman's new book, The Desecration of Man, as a thank you. This timely book examines our culture's transgression of human identity and how Christians can lead the way toward restoration.
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