It was in my first leadership development course that I learned about the Stockdale paradox. You remember it? Admiral James Stockdale, the former prisoner of war during the war in Vietnam, was asked the difference between those POWs who made it out and those who didn't. He said, famously, that those who didn't make it were the people who were defeated by their own optimism because that optimism denied the horrors they were experiencing. The POWs who made it embraced the paradox of facing the reality of their situation without losing hope. Thus was born the Stockdale paradox: face the brutal facts but never abandon hope.
This year, every congregational leader has learned what it means to live this paradox at a deeper level than most of us have known before. Many of us have buried beloved church members or our own loved ones. Some of us have been ill ourselves. Some of us have marched for justice, while almost all of us have closed our buildings. We have faced the ire of our members for both. Some of us have questioned our vocations and our callings. Some of us have wondered how much longer we can last in this work. These are the brutal facts we face.Â
Now, as we move toward the end of 2020, we move ever more closely toward hope -- not as idealistic escapism -- but because the Apostle Paul is right. Even in the most brutal of circumstances, hope does not disappoint. It can't.Â
We'll see you here next week.Â
