Chris Rock used to tell this joke about how, when he was a boy, his dad would chronically over-prescribe Robitussin to him.

“Daddy, I got asthma! ‘Well here, take some Robitussin!’ Daddy, I got cancer! ‘Here, take some Robitussin!’ Daddy, I broke my leg! ‘Here, put some ‘tussin on it…that’s right, let the ‘tussin sink in there. Yeah, boy! Let that ‘tussin get in there. Let that ‘tussin go down to the bone!’”

It’s a funny social commentary on parents who, when they don’t have the proper medicine, use whatever they have, and in using it, promote it to their kids as a miracle cure. Society does this very thing to us in the form of optimism. It is supposedly the ultimate treatment for any ailment. It’s the ‘tussin of the day. Think positive. Become a glass half-full person. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. With an optimistic attitude, the sky is the limit. We’ve all heard these axioms over and over again…and it’s not like they aren’t without merit. Winston Churchill once said, “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” I agree. Being positive is better than being negative eight days a week, of that you will find no debate from me. The problem is that, in life, optimism alone is insufficient, because it’s not inherently fastened to anything concrete. Optimism, as the world teaches it, is believing that the best is yet to come without really knowing why. Devoid of hope, it is fundamentally flawed.

Hope, you see, is based on truth. Hope sustains. The world can’t peddle hope, though, because, well…they don’t have any. So, they roll out the best they can offer in optimism. If you don’t have a cast for your broken leg, throw some ‘tussin on it…and then try to persuade yourself that it will heal properly.

That’s the world’s message.

On the other hand, Romans 5 says that, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

That’s God’s message.

Optimism, when standing alone, is essentially the art of tricking oneself into being irrationally positive about the future, whereas hope gives one solid reason to be so positive. Just as faith without works is dead, optimism unsupported by hope is futile. Hope provides the foundation on which optimism rests, and all of this is because hope is firmly rooted in the person of Jesus Christ.

There is no hope but Jesus. None. It is because of Jesus that we can rejoice in our sufferings. It is in knowing Him that we can be assured a bright future. It is through what He did on Calvary, that we can experience a hope that doesn’t disappoint. It is by accepting His free gift of salvation that we can truly become optimistic.

Maintaining a positive outlook on life, in and of itself, is a chore. It’s a daily task of convincing oneself that things will end well, when there’s no basis on which to believe they actually will. It’s blind faith. Maintaining optimism when it is joined with the hope that comes from Christ, though, is natural, because it is grounded in the truth of His Word. It’s akin to watching your favorite team play a game on ESPN Classic. You already know the final score. Therefore, there’s no pressure. There are no worries. With the outcome not in doubt, there is never cause for alarm. This is the Christian life…optimism because of hope, and hope because of Christ. Remove Christ, and the hope that makes living an optimistic life possible is removed as well.

So if you are struggling today, you can seek to alleviate your pain by walking into any bookstore in America and purchasing one of a million self-improvement books touting the power of optimism. They are all very well intended. Of course, so is throwing Robitussin on your every illness. Robitussin will never cure cancer, though, and optimism will never work except that it be coupled with the hope that can only come from Jesus. I challenge you to discover…or perhaps, rediscover…this hope for yourself, experience real optimism, and put the ‘tussin back in your medicine cabinet for good.