It's not always discouragement that destroys hope in us and the desire to keep walking each day full of life. On the contrary, it could be said that hope is almost always extinguished in us silently and almost without our knowing it.

Maybe without our noticing it, our life ends up losing color and intensity. Little by little it seems that everything starts to be heavy and boring. We go about doing more or less what we need to do, but life doesn't «fill» us.

One day we observe that true happiness has been disappearing from our heart. We're no longer capable of enjoying the good, the beautiful, and the greatness that existence holds.

Little by little everything has become more complicated. Maybe we no longer expect anything great out of life or out of anyone. We no longer believe even in ourselves. Everything seems useless to us and without much meaning.

Bitterness and bad moods take hold of us more easily as time goes on. We no longer sing. From our lips nothing leaves but strained smiles. It's been a while since we got prayer right.

Maybe we observe sadly that our heart has gotten hardened and today we hardly care for anyone truly. We're incapable to welcoming and listening to those we meet each day in our journey, and we only know how to complain, condemn and discredit.

Little by little we've been falling into skepticism, indifference or an «all-encompassing laziness». Each time with less energy for anything that demands true effort and self-development, we no longer want to take new risks. It's not worth it. Concerned about many things that seemed important to us, life has been escaping us. We've grown old inside and something is about to die within us. What can we do?

First thing is to wake up and open our eyes. All these symptoms are a clear indication that our life is badly founded. That bad feeling we have is the alarm that has gone off inside us.

Nothing is lost. We can't all of a sudden feel good about ourselves, but we can react. We must ask ourselves what we have been neglecting recently, what we need to change, to what do we need to dedicate more attention and time. Jesus' words are directed to all of us: «Wake up». Maybe this very day we need to make a decision.

José Antonio Pagola

 Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf

Publicado en www.gruposdejesus.com