Cynicism is a topic beaten to death here. We hear about the reasons for it, the ways to combat it, the justification for it. But I don't think anyone truly understands the cause of it.
For me, any tendency toward cynicism is caused by seeing people for who they are.
We come into adulthood believing that adults had it all together. We believed that our parents always had the best in mind for us, the people always make sacrifices, that everyone learned how to share and get along. But when we get to the age where we see the truth, cynicism strikes.
I used to think that people, although evil at heart, would never be intentionally malicious. I didn't think that they would be openly hateful, and spew from their mouths whatever bad opinion they had of someone at that time. I did not understand that people sinned intentionally.
I used to think that my friends would never be jealous, that my roommates would never be annoyed at me without cause, and that my relatives always would have my best at heart. Cynicism happens when you realize the naivete of those thoughts. When your friend hates you for no apparent reason, when your roommate doesn't ask you for your side of the story, and when your relatives doesn't even notice your needs. Cynicism is the realization that for the rest of your life, you are going to be living with people who are horribly sinful, who want nothing but their own pleasure, and you realize that even the most spiritual of people have this awful shortcoming.
Cynicism, in short, is a way to hold onto your bitterness. Being angry is a way to protect yourself, because if you can be angry, you cannot be hurt. You cannot be convicted. You cannot stabbed, because you are in the right.
Depression is when you turn that cynicism in towards yourself. When you are hurt by others, and you see only your own failings. You see your failure to pay attention to your brother's needs, your failure to listen to your roommate, and you failure to be a perfect friend. Depression is the realization that for the rest of your life, you are going to have to live with yourself. Depression is a way to hold onto your justification. To be depressed, you cannot be blamed for your own sinfulness, because it appears you are aware of it. If you hate yourself, no one can blame you for not being better, because it's not your fault you are not perfect. It is a way to justify the escape from yourself, where you can run away from your sin nature and blame it on depression.
Cynicism and depression are only fought by one thing: love.
Love thinks no evil. Love believes all things. Love never fails. How can you be cynical when someone is loving you--or you are loving someone--in this way?
Of course, so many times this is the cause of cynicism. We see this standard for love, we see the utter failure of anyone to live it out, and we grow cynical. But to be cynical is to show a lack of faith. It is to deny the power of God, to deny His presence, and to say that His work in our lives is not enough to satisfy us. It is to say that He is not powerful enough to bring love into our lives, and that His example is not enough to satisfy us in Him and not in others.
The beginnings of cynicism is a healthy dose of realism. We should be aware that others are not perfect, that we are not perfect. We should know the depths of wickedness to which we are capable of descending.
But that realism is followed by a choice: to be faithless or faithful. To love or not to love. If we choose love, then we have chosen God. If we choose cynicism, we have chosen the world.
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