The Curse? Part Deux

Lately I've been thinking. (I know, it's dangerous). I think one of Jesus' prime objectives was to offer hope. Did you ever notice how He ate with "sinners"? Why didn't he hang out with church-folk? I seem to remember Him saying one time that He did come to seek the healthy, but the sick. Did you see him touch that outcast? Or the way he included women in a culture that placed women a little higher than children? It seems like He wanted to offer something specific - hope for the hopeless.
Are we doing a good job at that? Are hopeless people around us turning to us for hope? I think when we are persistently negative, that does not emit hope. It emits hopelessness. If you've ever watched an Indians/Browns/Cavs/Ohio State game with me, you'll know that I don't often expect the best...I expect the worst. And what seems to happen? The worst. I've adopted a philosophy that most Clevelanders share: If you expect the worst, you won't be disappointed when it happens. Just writing it, I realize that that's a crappy attitude to have.
So I'm starting today with this vow before God and you, my witnesses: I'm done being negative about Cleveland sports. You may be laughing right now, or think this is trite, but if you really know me, you know it's a big step. One small step for man, a little closer to being a positive, hope-filled person.
I was reading a while back, and discovered a simple, but profound truth: in the words of Donald Miller: "I am the problem". What? Yeah, I'm the problem. Maybe if we would turn inward and review ourselves, we would have less bad to say about other people or things. What if, instead of complaining about the church/city/family we are in, we actually tried to contribute to making it better? What if instead of talking to our co-workers about all the homeless in Cleveland trying to get money after Indians' games, we took a day (or many) and helped out downtown at the City Mission, or Habitat for Humanity? What if instead of complaining about poor public education we took time to tutor just one underpriveleged child. Jesus of all people knows the state of humanity. After all, he watched Adam and Eve eat the fruit. But did He sit up in heaven pouting about how stupid humans are? No...He did something about it...namely, he sacrificed Himself so that we could have hope.
You see, Clevelanders believe that there is a curse. The curse of Rocky Colavito. Or whatever. Cleveland's not cursed. It' simply full of people who believe that everything bad will happen to them. But look at all the good happening in Cleveland! Sometimes it takes being removed from the situation to see that, but Cleveland is a world-class city. I may be biased, but Cleveland has so much to offer. It's residents need to believe that now, and start spreading hope!
Humanity's problem is that it is cursed. But we have the remedy! There is reason to hope! Things can be better NOW, not just when we die and go to the "pie in the sky." We can make the world around us better. We can be the remedy, one person at a time.
I am the problem. But I can also be the solution.