Conditional Optimism

I have always been an optimist, but that doesn't mean I don't believe I need to work for it.

'So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.' - Luke 11:9-10

Paul Romer is an economist at New York University's Stern School of Business and one of two winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

His work is in conditional optimism, which posits that economic changes that work out for the good happen because we take the steps necessary to make them happen. 

This seems to be the opposite of what Jesus is telling his disciples, but I am not so sure it is.  In both cases, we have to do something to gain what we want.  Even though it is given freely, we must do the work of searching or asking or knocking.

I know plenty of people who often ask for help, and most of the time they get it in one form or another, but their situation won't change until they take action to make a change.

There are no conditions placed on God's grace.  He grants it unconditionally.  That is what love is.

Jesus tells a parable of a man who comes to ask for bread in the middle of the night, and even though it is a hardship to grant his wish, the neighbor does so because the man is persistent.

What we will do to dismiss the one who asks, God will do out of love, so we can and should be optimistic.

But why not be responsible also?

If we believe opportunities will come our way, why not be ready to take advantage of them when they appear?

That, I think, is where Romer and Jesus meet.

We must be ready to knock, confident enough to ask, and willing to search, and we will find what we seek.

More to come...