No one knows what he can do until he tries.
Do not let countless job promotions and opportunities pass you by for fear that you would not be able to do what is expected of you.
Such fears are baseless.
Many people have approached and told me, "You know, Francis, I have always dreamt of becoming a writer. But I can never be one now that I have this job. Besides, I also have a lot limitations." In their vulnerable moments, they reveal that they still greatly cherish these childhood dreams. The biggest hindrance to attaining these is themselves. Emperor Caesar wrote his commentaries in his tent while all the rest of the Roman army were asleep. The following day, he got up early and went to battle.
Handel wrote his best music after his doctors had told him about his impending death. While Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony after he had become deaf.
Three of the world's greatest poets - Homer, Milton, and Dante were blind men.
Hannibal and Lord Nelson, both outstanding generals, each had one eye.
Daniel Defoe wrote the classic Robin Crusoe while in prison. So did John Bunyan with his Pilgrim's Progress. Martin Luther translated the Bible in the Castle of Wartburg.
Dante wrote for twenty years in exile while awaiting executing. Cervantes wrote Don Quixote in a Madrid jail. The apostle Paul himself wrote his epistles joyfully while under arrest.
You'd say, "But these were great and talented men. I have a job to sustain for my family and my future."
Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind while working full time for a newspaper. Parliamentarian and statesman Lord Cavanaugh had neither arms nor legs. Our very own revolutionary Apolinario Mabini was a paralytic.
Now, do I hear you say, "But still I can't do what I want to do."
That's absolutely true because you can only do what God allows you to do. God has given us enormous talents and abilities to do great things for Him. It is a tragedy if you have not yet discovered them. This is as if you are living as a pauper when the land that you won has a large oil field underneath. It is more tragic if we already know what we have and yet not use them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson says that the reward of something done well is to have done it. Benjamin Franklin said, "Well done is better than well said."
God has appointed a day when all our works will be tested through fire. It will be sweet to hear Him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
Hold on to your dreams. Tell God about them and if He approves them, lift them up in prayer and they will come to pass. Without God, it is not worth dreaming about them.
Arise, o my soul, from a long slumber. For your dream to come true, you have to wake up first.