Are you a pessimist or optimist?  I ask because I'm reading a book titled, A Philosophy of Pessimism, written by Stuart Sim.  Why, he asks, given the state of the world and the many upon many challenges we face, can anyone suppose herself to be optimistic about the outcome?  Moreover, if the Calvinistic doctrines of divine sovereignty and predestination are true, how will we ever hope to change anything if God has already ordained the end of all things?  And how will those who, given sufficient circumstances, might be inclined to believe ever do so if God has not elected them to do so?
     He's asking some powerful questions.  If God is there, and if God is guiding and ordaining all things, how can we ever suppose we have any say in the matter?  How can we be hopeful if all for which we might hope has no basis?
     I don't know that anyone can fully answer these questions and, if she imagines she can, I am willing to say she is sorely mistaken.  In the end, if we wish to acknowledge, simultaneously, the fact and presence of God and the human capacity for choice, our only reason to be pessimistic is if we do not believe God is good, if we do not have evidence he is really a God of love.
     Yet we do have evidence that God is good and a God love, in the person of Jesus Christ.  Does this explain or compensate for the pessimism that inevitably accompanies this fleeting existence?  Not always.  Without this, however, given our finitude and all with which we fill it, we only face more turns in the vacuum of the unknown.