No matter what life seems to dish you, never give up hope. No matter how hard you may have crashed, or how far low you fell, never give up in life. No matter how low you feel about life, begin, with this article, now, as a step to make your life worth living.
There is always that “Something” within us, that one bright thing bridging the gap between a sunken heart to a higher peak which shifts our thinking forward.
In previous articles which I’ve linked together here, I told about my story of being sentenced to 10 years in prison over a foolish securities violation.
This occurred in my 25th year as a financial adviser, a business I loathed and never truly wanting it as a career. But somehow I’d just got caught up in life making it my livelihood.
The thought of never give up hope was hard to hang onto as I resided in the county jail for two months during court hearings, due to my inability to find bail money.
All I could think about in my scarcity mindset, was life is not worth living.
When you Feel Life is not Worth Living
The Course in Miracles states, “There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear cut direction, provided by a Teacher.”
This is where I would remain until being bussed off to prison.
I had already been escorted on at least a dozen round trips to the courthouse for various hearings—not a very lovely trip at all, being bound by shackles, a belly chain, and handcuffs, along with a van full of others.
You would think they were holding me for murder or some other type of severe offense.
But this is the norm for all felony cases, regardless of their nature. A prisoner is a prisoner, and believe me, can make one feel like life is not worth living.
This particular trip seemed to be a much shorter van ride, compared with my other court appearances. My guess is that I no longer felt any use for time.
Nor would I have to live any longer with the person I’d so desperately been trying to be for so many years. I didn’t know who I was now, but I didn’t care, either.
To the public I was just another convicted felon.
“My career is finished, life is not worth living,” I would repeatedly mumble to myself while chained to the inside of the van with others who seemed to never give up hope about their cases on the rides back and forth to the jail.
(By the way, here’s a related article I’d written ages ago on the power of your subconscious can be accessed if you are willing and ready.)
Listen to your Heart and Never Give Up in Life
The Course in Miracles further teaches, “Do not attempt to teach yourself what you do not understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have clearly failed.”
On this day before Christmas Eve I had not yet been sentenced, but, taking my lawyer’s advice to never give up hope, I pled guilty to the securities charges that would send me to prison.
I thought it was odd that there was no plea bargain. My attorney insisted I trust him.
Once back at the jail, I noticed the young female deputy who unlocked the leg irons from my swollen ankles was about the same age as my twenty-one-year-old daughter Megan.
While the young deputy escorted me down a long corridor leading to my cell, I briefly recalled my own headstrong twenties, a period where I’d never give up hope.
But I’d never gotten into the kind of trouble I was in now while trying to convince myself to never give up in life.
To Make your Life worth Living
The deputy apologized and was pleasant as she smiled with a mindful gesture like she was saying, never give up hope, and pointed for me to enter the tiny cell where I would remain for at least another thirty days.
I needed saved, somehow, in some way.
(Here’s a related post about being saved or salvation, do we know what we are truly wanting to be saved from?)
But there was an urge, or a tug within me, an inner voice, perhaps, telling me “do not give up.”
I still was to be sentenced, which would mean one more round trip to the courthouse and back, and I was told that due to prison overcrowding I would have to wait for a prison bed.
During that time a pre-sentence investigation would be performed, which would weigh heavily on the judge’s decision as to how much prison time I would receive.
I was also told that my sentence could be determined by my ability to pay fines—just like in the old western cowboy movies, when a judge would say, “That’ll be thirty days or thirty dollars, it’s up to you.”
In my case I was broke, so how could I possibly have the attitude of never give up hope. I thought to myself, if this scenario about my lack of funds for paying fines were true, I was in hot water.
But then, that same urge inside me, that familiar tug to my heart, the inner voice, would gently and lovingly whisper, “Begin right now in this instant to make your life worth living.”
(Please note I also suggest this related article on how to have a better life by understanding the Law of Attraction.)
To never giving up in life,
James Nussbaumer
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