Optimism

My favorite band is Radiohead – yes, I am one of those...I am sorry. A song on their year 2000 release, Kid A, called “Optimistic” has been on my mind lately. The song is somewhat abrasive, consisting of a driving beat and an Eastern music influenced minor scale. You can listen to them play it live in the video above. The lyrics drip with sarcasm and the chorus states mockingly…

“You can try the best you can,
you can try the best you can.
The best you can is good enough”.

I am a man who deeply desires to do the best I can, and who is ashamed that the best I can is not enough. That is, simply, pride. I must daily take the time to pause, think, and accept that because I am fallen, because I am not perfect the best that I can do will never be enough. It won’t be enough for my wife, for my children, for my employer, for my friends, for doing the dishes, for anything, but I so desperately want it to be.
This desire can seem good or productive, and includes some earthly rewards, but it concludes the same every single time - frustration - my best is not enough. But now for the Good News. God is more than enough. Though we are incomplete he is doing a great work in us. It isn’t because we try hard, or do our best, it is because of his benevolent love for us which he has freely given.
So I confess that I am a prideful, broken, and in end not even a good man. However, God is completing me and someday, due to his perfection and sacrifice, my best will be enough.
Think of where you are broken, confess to God where you are broken, and rejoice in the fact that you are a chosen child of Him, that you are loved more deeply than you can imagine, and that one day you will be complete.

-Jason W. Wilson Esquire