Thank you for saving my life. Have you ever spoken those words? I have. It was August 2001 and at the relatively young age of forty I entered the emergency room of a hospital leading to a diagnosis of stage 3 colon cancer. Very unusual everyone said. You’e too young. No family history, nothing. Cancer was not on my calendar. “I” had things to do, didn’t God know that?
With a less than 50% survival rate, surgery and chemotherapy became my life’s new regiment. As a pastor I had stood bedside with many a parishioner and family walking through such. Never did I envision me being the one in the bed. Doctors, nurses, technicians, chaplains and prayer warriors became the circle encompassing me and my family…life giving relationships.
Fast forward 13 years and August 2014 I gratefully celebrated 13 years as a cancer survivor!
Why me and not others, I leave that up to God. What I do know is the trajectory of my life was changed forever. My body has never been quite the same. I have ongoing side effects of the chemotherapy, generally leading to an annual surgery. Small sufferings.
What I do know, and my family and close friends would testify, that God changed me from a hard charging, arrogant and egotistical, get things done at any cost……..minister (I know sounds like an oxymoron, but trust me!) to a pastor who began to see life differently. Others took on a greater importance and now the gift of conversation trumped a cost analysis.
I began to awaken to the importance of this idea of life giving relationships; be it a doctor saving a physical life OR an adult being a “life preserver” to a school child in need of a mentoring relationship.
For the past two years I have served as a mentor (a “big”) to a “little” (a 5th grade boy) at Tom Landry Elementary School through the Big Hope mentoring program. This year and with our new ministry, I have moved to Rockbrook Elementary School (our neighborhood elementary where I can ride my bike) and the Communities In Schools program.
All this to say, are you willing to save a life? I think there are many ways to do this, BUT undoubtedly mentoring a child is one. I encourage you to watch this video http://youtu.be/AAOEd5DoKGo from my friends at Vista Ridge United Methodist Church and see what they are doing. Bill Burden [email protected] can give you more information.
Save a Life,
Jim
