Revitalize Your Life

A little over 2 years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. During the past 18 months of recovery, God has begun to revitalize me through a series of simple, unexpected lessons. I don’t know what you may be going through at the present time, but I DO know this: God cares about you, and He is able to revitalize your life in ways you never dreamed possible. I’m confident some of my lessons will transform your life as well.

1. H.O.P.E. – Help One Person Every day. I realized that although I might not be able to save the entire world, at least I could find the strength each day to help ONE other person.

2. One day at a time. I began to practice my mom’s favorite Bible verse, Matthew 6:34. Jesus said we only need grace for the problems we will encounter today. Then at midnight we’ll get a new 24-hour supply of grace to handle whatever new challenges will come our way. His grace will always be sufficient, but only for one day at a time (Matthew 6:11; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

3. Focus on what you do have. One of God’s messages to me was life-changing: “Jim, instead of focusing on the energy you DON’T have, you need to utilize the energy you DO have.” Gradually I started to praise God for those precious, few, good hours and used them to touch people’s lives in a positive way. I began to realize that they were sufficient to do everything the Lord was calling me to do.

4. A Renewed Sense of Purpose. For my 70th birthday, my daughters created a Legacy Book for me. They obtained page after page of encouraging notes from people expressing gratitude for how I had taken time to personally invest in their lives. The Legacy Book showed me that, even with diminished energy, I still could meet people to do what I had been doing for many decades. When one of my friends asked about my vision for the remaining years of my life, I immediately answered, “To add more pages to this book!”

5. Taking walks again. When my oncologist asked me 18 months ago whether I was getting any exercise, I told him I was simply too tired. But this year, I decided to push myself and see what would happen. First, it was just 500 or 1,000 steps a day. Then I got up to 5,000 steps. Now I’m sometimes hitting over 10,000 steps! And here’s an amazing and paradoxical discovery I’ve made: The more energy I expend, the more energy I gain. Wow!

6. The power of grandchildren. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with my good friend Bernard who always sees the bright side of things, and this conversation was no exception. After listening to me complain about something in my life, he said, “Jim, just wait until you have grandchildren. It will change your life!” Bernard was right! My four grandchildren provide one of the coolest and most energizing parts of my life.

Let me leave you with one of the most powerful verses in the Bible, the words of Jesus’ mother to those serving at the wedding feast of Cana: “Whatever He tells you to do, do it” (John 2:5 NASB). Are you willing to do that? This story had quite the happy ending when these men followed Jesus’ instructions. He had saved the best for last, just as He wants to do for you!