Does death win it all? Is life meaningless? Or is there hope? Each
of us must choose the math of subtraction—of reducing despair—
or the math of being overwhelmed and sinking into cynicism.
■ ■ ■A leader’s task, we’re told by businessman Max DePree, is to
define reality. That requires more than projecting short- or long-
term goals or declaring a multiyear focus. To cast a positive vision,
a leader must wrestle with enough of life’s enigmas to not get
blindsided by the unforeseen. To define reality and lead effectively,
one must discover a reality resonant with hope.
Said Martin Luther, “Everything that is done in the world is
done by hope.” The truth Luther expressed is timeless. His name-
sake, Martin Luther King Jr.—though separated by centuries—
applied it to modern times: “We must accept finite disappoint-
ment, but never lose infinite hope.”Stay on the Horse
As a college president, Jay Kesler found that if he went pub-
lic with discouragement, the whole campus could be affected. Just
saying he felt “down” one day could cause groups to buzz with
the news, “Jay’s discouraged. We’re in trouble.”
Jay learned he had to stay “up,” or at least limit voicing his
discouragements to those capable of hearing them and helping.
“The larger group needs leadership,” Jay says. “It’s not deception
or subterfuge to be optimistic, to be excited, to encourage others
to believe in God. It’s just one of the ele-
ments needed in a leader.”
Jay uses the illustration of the film
“El Cid.” Charlton Heston, in the title
role, was leading the Spanish army in a
series of battles against the invading
Moors. Just before the climactic confrontation, he was mortally
wounded. His presence on the battlefield, however, was so impor-
tant to the morale of his army that his officers fastened him in his
Communicating Optimism and HopeHope is the power of being
cheerful in circumstances
which we know to be
desperate.
G. K. CHESTERTON