Irn Bru and positivity - all you need?

There’s been a word doing the rounds up here in Scotland recently. I wonder if you have noticed it - or even caught it (wherever you live)! Optimism. That was the strapline to the well crafted adverts for the drink Irn-Bru that were plastered up and down the country in the run up to the men’s football European Championships.

As a nation we embraced the message. Let’s toast to the future being brighter than the past and believe that this time round things might turn out differently. Did they? Well, as we watched Scotland fail to qualify from the group stages of the tournament, it didn’t take long for my can of Irn Bru to taste of tartan tears and for optimism to turn to realism.

One word that you won’t find in Scripture…

Positivity is very much admired in our culture. We admire glass-half-full people - the 'always look on the bright side of life' kind of people who have the ability to keep up their game face. And yet we all know that feeling of having our hopes deflate like a punctured helium balloon.