Peanuts is a comic strip that has entertained generations of Americans. You probably know a lot about Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy, and all the gang. Today I invite you to focus on Charlie Brown himself. It seems like all sorts of bad things happen to him. Lucy sometimes invites him to kick a football that she is holding, but every time he runs toward her, she pulls the ball away at the last minute and leaves him flat on his back. Or he brings the gang outside to play baseball, and when he does, inevitably one of two things happens. Either the heavens open and torrential rain falls, leaving him standing on the pitcher’s mound all by himself while everyone else has the good sense to go inside. Or it doesn’t rain and the game goes on, which means that Charlie Brown gets the opportunity to pitch. But that turns out to be a disaster as well; the other team pounds the ball. In fact, sometimes their hits are so vicious that they knock off Charlie Brown’s clothing and leave him on the mound in only his underwear. And at school, Charlie Brown sees the red-haired girl that he admires so much. He wants to go and talk to her, but he never works up the courage.
Thinking about all that, you might assume that Charlie Brown is not much of a role model for anybody. But I think he teaches us something important about the spiritual life. As we face the many challenges and obstacles that lie in our path, we often have experiences of disappointment or failure or frustration, similar to what Charlie Brown goes through. But the spiritual life teaches us to push through those experiences and find hope. As spiritual people, we face those negative times and we learn what we can from them. We let those experiences make us better people, stronger people—and best of all, more compassionate and sympathetic people. Because of our hardships, we are better able to connect to others who are dealing with their own disappointments and failures and frustrations. We can tell them, based on our own experience, that better days are coming.
Indeed, we see that happen for Charlie Brown. He never stops hoping that this might be the time when Lucy will really hold the ball in place and he’ll kick it to the moon. He continues to trust that the sun will come out and that his baseball team will win. He keeps looking at that red-haired girl and thinking of all that he might say to her. And someday in his future it will happen. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But it will happen.
And we can develop the same kind of hope for our own time. We all have challenges to face. We all have moments that humble us and sometimes threaten to undo us. But as spiritual people, we can face those times with confidence. The trials that we experience can shape our lives for the better. And then we can help others in their times of trial as well.
I hope that provides you with some food for spiritual thought.
Larry Lindstrom has been the Multifaith Campus Chaplain at Sinclair since 2016. He provides programs on different faith traditions and encourages students, faculty and staff to explore their spiritual journey. Lindstrom also serves the college as the liaison for the office of LGBTQ+ Support. You can contact him at larry.lindstrom@sinclair.edu.