Half-Empty or Half-Full?

I have in my hand an eight-ounce glass, with four ounces of lemonade. Is the glass half empty, or half full? Your answer may help to determine if you are an optimist or a pessimist. Whereas an optimist tends to see the brighter or more hopeful side of things, a pessimist tends to view things with less confidence. Either perspective can determine the outcome of your health.  

According to a series of studies from the United States and Europe, “optimism helps people cope with disease and recover from surgery.” Even more impressive is the impact of a positive outlook on overall health and longevity. Research suggests that an optimistic outlook early in life can predict better health and a lower rate of death during follow-up periods of 15 to 40 years.

In a 1988 study from Harvard Medical School, it would appear that to investigate optimism, scientists first needed to develop reliable ways to measure the trait. Two systems were used. One measured dispositional optimism, the other explanatory style. Dispositional optimism depends on positive expectations for one's future. These are not confined to one or two aspects of life but are generalized expectations for a good outcome in several areas.

Explanatory style is based on how a person explains good or bad news. The pessimist assumes blame for bad news ("It's me"), assumes the situation is stable ("It will last forever"), and has a global impact ("It will affect everything I do"). The optimist, on the other hand, does not assume blame for negative events. Instead, he tends to give himself credit for good news, assumes good things will last, and be confident that positive developments will spill over into many areas of his life.

I believe that some people are optimistic by nature, but many of us learn optimism as well. According to Stanford Professor Leah Weiss, anyone can learn to be optimistic — the trick is to find purpose in work and life. “When we work with purpose or live with purpose, we feel more fulfilled and better equipped to see the glass ‘half full.’”

One study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that writing in a journal about what you are grateful for was linked to greater feelings of optimism, while another published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that keeping a journal in which you write down your own acts of kindness can also give your optimism a boost. More and more studies are confirming that writing down what you’re grateful for comes with some pretty impressive physical benefits as well, including better sleep, fewer aches and pains and fewer depressive symptoms.

A short-term study evaluated the link between optimism and overall health in 2,300 older adults. Over two years, people who had a positive outlook were much more likely to stay healthy and enjoy independent living than their less cheerful peers. If optimism actually improves health, it should also boost longevity.

Another study in the United States looked at 6,959 students who took a comprehensive personality test when they entered the University of North Carolina in the mid-1960s. During the next 40 years, 476 of the people died from a variety of causes, with cancer being the most common. All in all, pessimism took a substantial toll; the most pessimistic individuals had a 42% higher rate of death than the most optimistic.

Some may contend that optimists are not realists. They often overlook wrong, simply because of a disposition that expects them to think positively. Actually, optimism can be detrimental if it keeps you locked into fantasy and you are in denial about your current reality. For instance, you may be optimistic about finding a more lucrative job or loving relationship, but if you do not address the issues that are keeping you from those goals, you will not be able to achieve what you want.

Long before contemporary studies in optimism and pessimism, the Apostle Paul instructed Christians to think positively. In his letter to the Philippians, he contended that “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). His use of the word “think” is in the imperative mood. In other words, the action is a command to be obeyed, not an idea to be discussed. The idea was to replace dishonorable, unjust, impure, ugly, disgraceful, and detestable thoughts with positive and uplifting thoughts.

Imagine having an optimistic mindset in 2020! Such a perspective might bring about some of the changes you’ve longed to see. Have a Happy New Year!

Missing This Christmas

This Christmas was different. We were away from Jamaica, where we spent the last two festive seasons. This year, we were present with our three adult children and their families in South Florida. Our family reunions are like a kaleidoscope of ethnicities, cultures and noises.

Despite the memorable reunion, one of the things I missed this Christmas was hearing a live rendition of Handel’s Messiah. We long for a repeat of Christmas 2012, when we were among the 4,000 patrons to hear a rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah. Following the presentation I had to agree with one British newspaper, “It’s one of the greatest, uplifting life-changing pieces of music ever written.”

I understand that every hour, during the month of December, there is a performance of Handel’s Messiah somewhere in the world. Since the musical was premiered on April 13, 1742, the response around the world has been phenomenal. The only thing more phenomenal might be the story behind the music. 

On April 8, 1741, Handel gave what he considered his farewell concert. Miserably discouraged, he felt forced to retire from public activities at the age of fifty-six. Then, two unforeseen events converged to change his life. A wealthy friend, Charles Jensen, gave Handel a script based on the life of Christ, taken entirely from the Bible. Handel also received a commission from a Dublin charity to compose a work for a benefit performance.

With those opportunities in hand, Handel set to work composing on August 22, 1741, in his little house on Brook Street in London. He grew so absorbed in the work that he rarely left his room, hardly stopping to eat. Within six days part one was complete. In nine more days, he had finished part two, and in another six, part three. The orchestration was completed in another two days. In all, 260 pages of manuscript were filled in the remarkably short time of 24 days.

While writing Messiah, Handel was visited by a friend. The man found the composer sobbing as he was setting music to the words, “He was despised and rejected of men.”

The story is told of Handel’s servant/helper being frustrated because Handel hardly touched the food brought to him during the weeks of writing. The servant once again went into the room to bring food that he assumed would not be eaten when he was suddenly taken aback. “The startled composer, tears streaming down his face, turns to his servant and cries out, ‘I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.’ George Frédéric Handel had just finished writing a movement which would take its place in history as the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’”.

Messiah premiered on April 13, 1742 as a charitable benefit, raising 400 pounds and freeing 142 men from debtor’s prison. A year later, Handel staged it in London - the King of England attended the performance. As the first notes of the triumphant Hallelujah Chorus rang out, the king rose. Following the royal protocol, the entire audience stood too, initiating a tradition that has lasted two hundred and seventy-seven years.

It is believed that King George I was so moved by the sentiments expressed in the Hallelujah Chorus, and by the facts that if Christ is to reign, then all earthly monarchs are necessarily subordinate, that he rose to his feet, and the audience rose with him. Like King George I, many stood with us as the Chorus was sung in Nashville seven years ago.

Handel personally conducted more than thirty performances of Messiah. Many of these concerts were benefits for the Foundling Hospital, of which Handel was a major benefactor. The thousands of pounds that Handel’s performances of Messiah raised for charity led one biographer to note, "Messiah has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan . . . more than any other single musical production in this or any country." Another wrote, "Perhaps the works of no other composer have so largely contributed to the relief of human suffering."

Messiah is more than a display of Handel’s musical ability. Actually, before Messiah, Handel’s occasional commercial success soon met with financial disaster. He drove himself relentlessly to recover from one failure after another, and finally his health began to fail. By 1741 he was swimming in debt. It seemed certain he would land in debtor’s prison.

Then things changed - I believe the subject of Handel’s focus on the Messiah had a remarkable impression on him. A few days before he died, he expressed his desire to die on Good Friday, "in the hopes of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and Savior, on the day of his Resurrection." He lived until the morning of Good Saturday, April 14, 1759. His death came only eight days after his final performance, at which he had conducted his masterpiece, Messiah.

Do you know Handel’s Messiah? I don’t mean the musical, I mean Jesus Christ, the focus of Handel’s music. Just as the music, Jesus makes such a big difference in so many lives.

Mary, Did You Know?

Twenty-five years ago, Rev. Jerry Falwell invited Mark Lowry to write a Christmas program. As he wrote the “speaking parts”, he began to think about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  

In a recent interview, Lowry recalled, “as my mind went back to the manger scene, I began to think about the power, authority and majesty Mary cradled in her arms. I began writing a list of questions I would like to ask Mary if I could sit down with her - questions such as, ‘Mary, do you know who is in your arms? Did you know that your baby boy will walk on water, give sight to a blind man and calm a storm at sea with his hand?’”

Lowry carried his lyrics with him for the next seven years. In 1991, he asked his good friend, Buddy Greene, to write suitable music for his poem. According to Green, “Mark handed me his lyrics, and I held on to them for about two weeks.

One day I pulled them out and looked at them. They seemed to suggest a minor key approach to writing an accompaniment. I completed the musical setting in about 30 minutes. I called Mark at his home in Georgia and on the phone played and sang the song to him. He was ecstatic! He said, ‘That’s it!’

Two weeks later. Greene met in Mark’s hotel room in Nashville where they recorded the song on a small portable machine. It was then taken to Michael English who was preparing to make an album. He was the first person to record “Mary, Did You Know?”

Since Michael English, many other artistes have rendered “Mary, Did You Know”. I like Mark Lowry’s rendition very much. Then I heard the Pentatonix a cappella rendition.

In 2014, this Grammy Award-winning a cappella group with their resplendent displays of vocal harmony, took Lowry’s classic to another level. The musical group used the diversity of their collective vocal ranges to emphasize that a small gathering is in awe of Mary and her role. Each of the five vocalists asked her their questions. The unusual approach magnified the sense of wonder in the song, particularly as contrasted to a single querying narrator.

Here we are, twenty-five years later and still in love with “Mary, Did You Know”. Some are captivated by the music and return to it again and again. Interestingly, many who do not share Mark Lowry’s faith, which fueled his authorship, sing the song with passion.

Some who share Lowry’s faith have problems with the song. They believe the song contends that Mary needed a Savior. “But how could Mary need a Savior,” they ask, “if she were born of immaculate conception?” Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic teaching which asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved free from the effects of original sin from her conception.

Mary had been solemnly declared to be the mother of God at the Church’s Council of Ephesus in 431. Most Catholic theologians doubted that one who had been so close to God could have actually experienced sinful acts. I have not read the findings of the Council of Ephesus, but I have read the Magnificat, the lyrics of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55.

The Latin translation of Mary’s response begins with the word Magnificat, which simply means “magnify” (or “exalt,” “glorify,” etc.). The Magnificat is a poem of praise to God, praising Him for His blessing to Mary and His faithfulness to Israel. The Magnificat also highlights a series of reversals in which the proud are humbled and the humble are exalted—not the least being a poor young girl who will be the mother of the Messiah.

Commentators have pointed out that the Magnificat is full of quotations of and allusions to passages in the Old Testament. Many of the truths Mary expresses find a counterpart in Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1–10.

Dr John Piper shared an interesting commentary on Mary’s reference to God’s holiness. Piper contends that Mary stressed that God's holiness has expressed itself and will express itself by exalting the lowly and abasing the haughty.

“What fills Mary's heart with joy is that God loves to undertake for the underdog who calls on his mercy. This is how his holiness expresses itself. Does this not commend itself as true, that the great and holy God should magnify his greatness by blessing the lowly who admire his greatness and by abasing the haughty who resent his greatness?”

Honestly, Mary would not have been able to answer the questions in Mark Lowry’s song – she just did not know the answers. However, what she knew, was what God could do through the surrender of a simple teenage girl. This Christmas, remember, God still works through simple people who surrender their lives to Him.