What Should We Hope For? / Circumstances and a Life Worth Living

Given that a whole lot of life is made up of circumstances, how much do they matter? What place do they have in a flourishing life? The ancient Stoics thought circumstances don’t matter at all. And if they do matter, you’ll have to make up your own mind about what circumstances are most worth hoping for and pursuing.

Lecturer at Yale College and Life Worth Living Co-Founder, Ryan McAnnally-Linz encourages a different way of thinking for yourself about the circumstances of life and what we should hope for, in this this chapter-by-chapter video curriculum series based on his bestselling book (with Matt Croasmun and Miroslav Volf), Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most.

Transcript

I remember as a kid sometimes thinking to myself, “If I ruled the world … ” something or other would be different (and definitely better). There’s something really enticing about the fantasy of calling all the shots, of having everything in our control.

But we know it’s just that—a fantasy. We don’t call all the shots. Not everything is under our control.

In fact, fairly little is completely in our control. There are things, for example, that most of us can do to improve our health. But we can’t guarantee that we’ll never get injured or fall sick. Many people inherited health problems before they were even born.

Just to have a convenient name, let’s call all the things and aspects of things that aren’t under our control, circumstances.

‍Given that a whole lot of life is made up of circumstances, how much do they matter? What place do they have in flourishing life?

One extreme answer, given by some of the ancient Stoic philosophers is: *none*. They don’t matter at all.

Unless you’re willing to go all the way with them, you’ll face the question: What circumstances are worth wanting and—to the extent we can—pursuing? What should we hope for?

The list of possibilities is long:

• Peace
• Beauty
• Wealth
• Connections
• Health
• and good friends—just to name a few—are all plausible contenders.

They don’t all necessarily go together well.

And according to some of history’s great thinkers and religious and cultural traditions, some of them might not be as worthy as they seem.

Some have worried, for example, that wealth is apt to push God out of the center of our lives; or tends to disconnect us from life-giving forms of dependence on community; or enthralls us to harmful cycles of desire and craving.

They may or may not be right, but their perspectives show that it’s not obvious what’s worth hoping for and you’ll have to think for yourself about whether the things you’ve set your hopes on for yourself, the ones you love, and your community are really worth it.