On Life 13 – Do not despair – February, 14, 2014

   Many people who failed in their life did not realize how close they were form achieving success when they despaired of trying.” Thomas Edison says that on the way of life we always become so desperate which breaks our will. But remember my dear reader that the successful people in life are those who rejected all the meanings of despair in their life and hope was the light of their road, hope that God will reward their toiling and hope in the capabilities that God gifted each man with.

   What if despair found its way to life of Edison, Einstein, Beethoven and Helen Keller and many others from those who walked the hard way that they walked alone sometimes with no companion but hope. Do not let despair sneak into your life when you find difficulties. Trust that God exists and work hard to overcome the problems you face.

   In your daily life when you meet a problem, do not become easily despaired and stop finding a solution, but perhaps being hopeful helps another in his toiling on the life path. I once read a story about a bridge that was built at the entrance of San Francisco. But the work has interrupted and stopped for unclear reasons for those responsible for its building. One of the reasons of this interruption was because of workers themselves. Fear and terror hit them when they knew that the more millions of dollars was spent while building the bridge, one of the workers died.

   Here the security precautions were taken as they offered the workers safe tools, hard helmets, anti slippery shoes, protective garments, medical checkup and good food to prevent their faint. But all these precautions were not useful. All the work hinders were taking on increase because of the workers fearful ideas, “What if I fall from the bridge and died” what made them truly think of this was that many have already fell and died and their numbers increase day by day.

   The heads of the project kept looking for a solution till the senior engineer has discovered that what terrified the workers was their fear of falling, not the possibility of their fall.

   So he thought of a way to help the workers restore their felling of security till their fear dispersed. His thinking led the company to make a net of ropes that are put along the bridge. The idea was ridiculed by some people. But the head of the engineers insisted on completing it .The cost of this net was 800 thousand dollars. Once the net was made, the workers fear of falling has completely dispersed. This led them to focus on their work instead of being busy fearing of falling. Hence, work went on easily and more effectively. The kind of work did not changed but there was an answer for the question, “What if I fall from the bridge?”.In life there are many questions and situations that come to our mind…what if I faced hinders on my life path? Trust in God and your capabilities and use them to solve your problems… do not be desperate. Despair is the first step of failure…on life we are still sailing…

General Bishop

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center