why you have to keep leaning into cynicism

“I am a great cynic.” 

Would you believe those words came from someone who advocates on behalf of the poor and the oppressed on a daily basis? Believe it or not, there are days when even the ones telling you to have hope for the end of poverty have trouble believing it themselves!

Cynicism is hard to avoid when there’s so much injustice in the world and it seems like it’s not going away. We have the statistics to prove that we are making definite progress, but when you’re still face-to-face with evil, it all seems so much bigger than any numbers could tell you otherwise.

I had the chance to sit down with Jayme Cloninger, Manager of Public Policy with Feed the Children, a faith-based nonprofit providing hope and resources for those without life’s essentials. At 24, Jayme describes herself as a “human rights and social justice activist” and a “faith-driven, passionate dreamer.”

To be completely honest, I was fairly intimidated by her passion and intensity! When I asked her how she addresses the cynics around her, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that there are days when she is in fact one of them.

“There are days where I am a great cynic,” Jayme told me. “It is overwhelming. Do I actually believe hunger will ever end?... I’ve seen things that are terrible and perpetuate incredible injustices and exploitation, that take the lives of so many innocent people and basically wreak havoc and Hell on earth.”

Is injustice a glimpse of Hell on earth? For Jayme, injustice is how we experience Hell everyday. And if it’s all around us, how do we experience hope? By remembering that there is also Heaven – the kingdom of God is near, and in that promise we find redemption and hope.

“This is where I stay really close to the Christian faith because of the role of Christ, as a believer in Jesus Christ and the life that He led,” Jayme said. “Jesus is someone who interacted with cynicism everyday, interacted with an unjust system – He exploited Himself on the cross for that! Because He dove deep into that, He was able to redeem it.”

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He came across people who doubted His authority, His power and His love. How could someone who appeared as lowly as Him possibly be the Messiah they had been waiting for? Even when they saw hope face-to-face – they saw Him heal their diseases, cast out demons, raise the dead to life, and touch the unloved – they let their cynicism overcome what they saw with their own eyes. Even Jesus’ disciples doubted Him! And when Jesus was crucified and darkness surrounded, cynicism peaked and all hope seemed lost.

Can we relate in our own cynicism about the end of extreme poverty? Then let’s remember the next chapter in the story – the resurrection of Christ. Many cynics were silenced then!

Photo: Jayme Cloninger with a little girl in the Philippines. 

“I’ve seen realistically the power of the resurrection,” Jayme said. “I’ve seen it in the Philippines, I’ve seen it in Mozambique, I’ve seen it in my own heart, I’ve seen it in my family’s… There are terribly systems, but there is hope.”

No one is beyond the reach of the power of the resurrection of Christ. And if we can believe that, why can’t we believe He can also redeem extreme poverty and injustice? As Christians, we are called to believe this. We are called to hope. But where do we begin? We start right where we are – in the middle of cynicism.

“Because we as Christians are called to live out a life that seeks redemption, we are called to question cynicism,” Jayme said. “We are called to question it on the grounds of hope and on the grounds of redemption… I think the enemy, per say, is cynicism, and I think God is with us in that. I don’t think God leaves us there. A lot of times [cynicism] is where I don’t feel God, but I think that the moments when I don’t feel God is when God is working the most…”

When she said that, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus on the cross, crying out to the Father, “Why have You forsaken me?” It is my belief that in that moment, He could not feel God – He took on our full punishment for sin through separation from God in that moment. But just because He couldn’t feel God with Him, does that mean God was not working? Our whole faith depends on the hope that He indeed was!

In a similar way, cynicism is a hard place to be, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can trust that God is with us and that He is still working. We don’t need to be afraid of cynicism. 

“You have to ask those hard questions that lead you to cynicism,” Jayme continued. “Questions will lead you to cynicism. But it can also lead you to apathy and inaction. But you can’t give up. You have to lean into those really, really hard questions because that’s the only way you’re going to come out of it with hope. You have to lean into the tension to find the hope – you have to. That’s what the role of Christ was in life.”

Here’s the truth: There are many days I’m a cynic. Maybe you are too. But this girl is going to keep leaning into it, and I'm not going to give up and remain in the cynicism – I'm going to come out of it with intense hope that we can end extreme poverty. I pray you’ll keep leaning into it too!


*Photo: A silk dyer in India. Whole families are enslaved in the silk industry, forced to work with toxic dye. Part of the Modern Day Slavery collection by Lisa Kristine.