Finding Hope in the Midst of Sleepless Nights and Challenging Days

 

The Church of Mercy (Week 4 of 6)

Do you ever feel tempted to quit? I’m in a season of life that has me, in a very physical way, stretched to the limit. I haven’t had a night of uninterrupted sleep in over ten months, and there have been some days and nights recently that have been particularly challenging.

But, you know, it’s a privileged time in my life. This is a blessing, I remind myself, praying even as I roll my eyes that God helps me want to want it.

The hardest part, for me, is when the sun is shining and my eyes are heavy and the workload is piled high around me. It is then that hope seems distant, even though there are smiling small people at my feet and lovely cascades of sunbeams all around me.

And so I find myself especially touched by Pope Francis’s admonition in today’s reading:

Ours is not a joy born of having many possessions, but of having encountered a Person: Jesus, in our midst. This joy is born from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable—and there are so many of them! And in this moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him! Let us follow Jesus! We accompany, we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders. This is our joy; this is the hope that we must bring to this world. Please do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let hope be stolen! The hope that Jesus gives us.

The Church of Mercy, Chapter 20, paragraph 4

Hope.

It’s so easy to let it go, let it slide, let it sit on the back burner while I attend to pressing and urgent matters, like poopy diapers and hurt knees and the baby’s proclivity to small objects in his mouth (and his older siblings’ proclivity for leaving such items where he will find them).

But in my work, the work I do outside my role as wife and mom, it’s just as easy to forget and/or neglect hope. People are…well, they certainly make the work of ministry and witnessing and everything harder, don’t they? Remembering that the work will remain, even after I go to bed, and that the reason I’m doing the work I do is to help others…it’s so tempting to quit. To give up. To walk away.

Discouragement, a wise friend told me within the last year, is never from God. And I can’t help but think that discouragement is the opposite of hope.

It doesn’t take much for discouragement to take root, to weasel its way into my most important projects and work and relationships.

The answer is Jesus. May I always turn to him for the grace to remember that.

Reading Assignment:

Parts VII and VIII

Discussion Questions:

1. What steals your hope or feeds your discouragement in your life? How might you turn to Jesus in an intentional way this week to help build hope and fight discouragement?

2. Do you have a special prayer or invocation that helps you remain hopeful? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Feel free to comment on anything from our assignment this past week!

Read More: http://spiritualdirection.com/topics/book-club

For More Information on the Book Club:  http://spiritualdirection.com/csd-book-club

About Sarah Reinhard

Sarah Reinhard continues to delight ”and be challenged by” her vocations of Catholic wife and mother. She’s online at SnoringScholar.com and is the author of a number of books for families.

This article is reprinted with permission from our friends at Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction.

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