There was a time when I received one of the most serendipitous gifts on my birthday. It’s a customized notebook from my sister where one of my own quotes had been inscribed on the cover. This is the quote that’s complete with an attribution to my name:
“Don’t give up now. For all you know, your dreams are just about to come true!” – Jocelyn Soriano
It was a very timely message that I needed to read. And I couldn’t help but be struck with the awesomeness of it all. It was something I had written long ago, and it came back to me right when I needed to remember it most.
Have you ever experienced something like that? Something like a happy coincidence just when you thought you’ve given up all hope? What do you do when you feel like giving up?
Mother Angelica had this very amazing quote. She said, “I am not afraid to fail, I am scared to death of dying and having the Lord say to me. ‘Angelica, this is what you might have done had you trust me more’.”
Maybe one of the reasons I lose hope is because of that feeling of failure. After feeling that I have already tried everything, I still can’t seem to make any progress in what I do. No matter how hard I work, I remain stuck.
It’s one of the worst feelings. To think that everything you do seems to be in vain. Even the work you’ve accomplished throughout the years seem to lose their meaning.
Mother Angelica, however reminds me that it isn’t that kind of failure I must fear. There is a greater failure, and that is failing to trust in God more. If I give up now, I wouldn’t know what God could have done more through me.
When you feel like giving up, try to pause for a while and present everything to God. Tell Him how you feel. Cry to Him if you need to. If He could lay down His life for you, would He not understand your tears?
Remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Did it not look like a big failure then?
And we all know what happens after that. After Jesus kept trusting the Father. And after He never gave up.
“But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain.
I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;
yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.’”
– Isaiah 49:4, WEBBE
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"