Cynics

By John Stallings


How glorious the king of Israel looked today! He exposed himself to the servant girls like any other person might do!—2 Sam.6:14

A cynic is defined as---A person disposed to railing & faultfinding with a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives or actions & is want to express it in a sarcastic manner; a sneering faultfinder.”

Another definition of a cynic is. “A man who when he smells flowers looks around for a casket.” Yet another is; “someone who is disappointed in the past & prematurely disappointed with the future.”

We have to be careful to look within ourselves for we all have within us the cynical voice. The cynic says things like; Take no risks, don’t walk too close to the edge, true love is a pipe dream, don’t spend your money on books, relationships don’t last, you’re too old, you’re too young, never trust people, the Sun revolves around the earth, there’s no cure for Polio, this is stupid, & isn’t there a law against it?

We don’t have to look far in the Bible to find cynics. When King David danced before the Ark as it was being brought back to Jerusalem, watching him from a window above was his appalled wife Michal. Cynicism caused her to interpret her husbands actions as naive’ & careless & she tore into him for it. Obviously God wasn’t pleased with her performance because the Bible records; because of this she had no children.

One of the first steps toward becoming a cynic is to start to doubt the goodness of God & people. It is said that we have 1,500 negative thoughts in a 24 hour period. We eat, breathe, listen to & swim in an ocean of negativity all the time.

1. The cynic comes on as a great moralist.

Cynics will say; “forget your dream & think about feeding the poor.” It’s funny they weren’t thinking about the poor until you & your dream came along. Judas registered his complaint about the woman poring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet in John 12:4-
6. It’s clear that he didn’t care for the poor as he said he did but he resented that precious essence being poured out & not getting his “cut.”

Cynicism & sentimentality are opposite sides of the same coin. Cynics generally feel all leaders are buffoons or crooks. If I were to pick someone who has a cynical persona in a humorous way it would be late-night T.V host David Letterman. As a matter of fact his style of cynicism is very pervasive today among America’s youth. People are confusing cynicism & sarcasm with sophistication.

Many TV sitcoms are based almost entirely on biting sarcasm, put-downs & snide remarks. Because it’s so clever its become a verbal art form.

2. Cynics are cheap-- & slow-down experts.

“You can’t pay for it” is one of their favorite lines. “People won’t support it, it’s too big.” Cynics try to intimidate. They are slow-down experts. Their advice is, “You must be cautious, slow & careful. We need more time to think about it.” They have “think-about-it itus.” They tried to stop David when he slew Goliath, Nehemiah when he rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls, Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. when he marched for justice & freedom, Fred Smith when he started FedEx & JFK with his dream of going to the Moon.

Cynics will think so long about something that they suck all the excitement out of it.

3. Cynics will shame you for your “egotistical ideas.”

In the 17th century, Galileo was ostracized by the Catholic Church & told, “The idea that the earth is not the center of the universe & that it daily revolves around the Sun is absurd & theologically false & an error in faith. In 1992 they recanted & apologized.

4. Cynics will tolerate goals but not dreams.

In 1927 many people said talking movies were silly. They said-“No one wants to hear the actor’s voices anyway?” Cynics love to ridicule. A cynic said decades ago, “There’s no reason for any person to have a computer in their home.”

A man came to Florida in the 1970’s to start a business. He’d been bankrupt 3 times & owed banks 5 million dollars. Cynics tried to talk him into building a “fun arcade” on about 5 acres with a few horses, a replica of the Matter horn & small train running around it. After all, who was he but a maker of cartoons, with a big dream? Had the cynics been successful, there would now be a “Walt’s Fun-arcade” in the outskirts of Orlando instead of “Disney World-- the worlds Number one resort destination.”
If we don’t have big dreams our spirits will wither.



5. Cynics will try to frighten you.

“If you fly in planes you might get killed.” If I’d been afraid to fly I could never traveled the world & seen thousands of souls saved. As an extra perk, I’ve also witnessed much of the breath taking beauty of God’s magnificent world. I’d rather die going somewhere interesting than to die sitting & accomplishing nothing. If I ever die in a plane crash, don’t waste any tears over me. Just say- he knew it could happen but that’s the way he wanted it. After all we have to get out of this world some way.

Fred Smith wrote an Essay in Business school about a company that would deliver packages all over the world within hours. His professor sneered at him & gave him a grade of 70. Today we know his business plan as FedEx.

My friend, follow your dreams though you reach the age of 100. Your dreams keep you alive. What dream is languishing in your heart stored away because of fear of ridicule? Expect fear to come when you commit. That’s o.k. You are drawn by your dreams. The only qualification a cynic needs is vocal cords.

We now have satellites hurling through space to send us back pictures of other worlds because of the power of dreams. If your dream is impossible that’s o.k. but get on with it.

Dreams by their very nature seem impossible. Don’t eliminate the unseen from your reality because when you do you eliminate God Himself. Your dreams will deliver you to a new reality.

Look around you. Everything you see is someone’s dream.

THE PHONE
THE LIGHT BULB
THE COMPUTER
TELEVISION
MICROWAVE
CAR
FAX
JET PLANES
HELICOPTERS
INTERSTATE HI-WAYS
AIR CONDITIONING
THE SPACE SHUTTLE
MAN ON THE MOON
CELL PHONES
IPHODS
BLACKBERRY’S, ECT.

When the Steam boat was being cranked for the first time, as it chugged & chugged, a cynic hollered --“They’ll never start that thing” It was finally successfully cranked & it lurched ahead so quickly it looked like it was coming up on the river bank. As the onlookers ran to get out of its way the same cynic hollered, “They’ll never stop that thing.”

Edison’s was 67 years old when his shop & warehouse burned to the ground destroying everything he had. He stood & watched it & said, “Thank God there goes all my mistakes.” When asked how he could continue working on the light bulb when he had so many failures, he replied, “I just learned ten thousand ways not to make a light bulb.”

In 1876 Western Union said, “The telephone has too many short comings to be successful.” In 1899 a respected leader in San Francisco said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

6. History has shown that cynics can be violent.

Ask the Kennedy family. Ask the Martin Luther King family. And even Jesus was killed by a sneering, hooting, hating, cynical, murderous mob. A cynic is threatened when he sees someone about to accomplish something great because he’s already given up on everything. Ask any athlete & they’ll tell you the closer they get to the goal or finish line the greater the pressure is, because a score is coming up.

A manifestation of cynicism is saying “what’s the use?” I heard a man say that the short version of the “serenity prayer” is “To blazes with it.” This would definitely be a vintage cynic statement.

God definitely isn’t a cynic because if he were He’d have given up on man when he sinned in the Garden. He could have looked at the whole mess & said “What’s the use?” All through man’s history God has continued to extend His grace when man failed time after time. His grace reached its zenith when Jesus Christ God’s son came to be born in Bethlehem, live, die & be resurrected from the dead to win for each of us the victory over sin, death & Satan.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he put it like this;

And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses & sin. Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh & of the mind; & were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together & made us sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.Eph.2:1-7


John