Hello friends! Last week we heard of Jimmy’s painful heartbreak over Shaun’s death. It seemed like Jimmy had lost all his will to live. However, in this episode, Jimmy finally surrenders his grief to God. With this came peace and purpose. After being stuck in the past for so long, let’s find out how Jimmy moves forward in life.

On May 2005, one week before his fortieth birthday, Jimmy was at a church service. They sang three of Shaun’s favorite songs in a row. These songs were “Magnificent”, “You Laid Aside Your Majesty” and “I Could Sing Your Love Forever”.  However, there was one other song which really touched Jimmy.

One song called “Through It All” made me burst into tears. It felt like God was speaking to me. Listening to the lyrics, I felt comforted and the song resonated with me. It was like God confirming that He was with me, in every season and trouble.

You are forever in my life

You see me through the seasons

Cover me with Your hand

And lead me in Your righteousness

I’ll sing to You Lord

A hymn of love

For Your faithfulness to me

I’m carried in everlasting arms

You’ll never let me go, through it all

At that moment Jimmy’s life changed. It was time; his salvation has come. Jimmy sobbed non-stop and he asked God for help, “God, I want to restart my life. Help me. I really don’t know what to do now. I don’t want to go through this anymore. I can’t take it anymore. What do you want me to do right now? Today I come with nothing. I surrender to You, God! Help me!”

Although he was still at a loss of what to do, Jimmy decided to surrender his life to God. A week later, he turned 40 and it was a chance meeting with an old friend, Richard, that changed Jimmy’s life forever.

After hearing Jimmy’s story, he asked gently, “Jimmy, how do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?”

This question angered Jimmy. It was the same question he had been asked at all his unsuccessful job interviews!  “Every day is a struggle to me!” Jimmy cried out. “How can I even think of the next 10 years? Don’t you understand?”

Without flinching, Richard looked straight into Jimmy’s eyes. He said, “Let me rephrase the question. Jimmy, what are you going to do with your life for the next 10 years?” 

Jimmy was shocked at this simple question. He just realized that he still had much more than 10 years to live!

Richard continued to tell Jimmy that the question was about what he wanted, what he could do and what he would do to achieve his dreams. Richard’s comments struck a chord and made Jimmy curious about life.

Jimmy found out that the average lifespan of a human being was around 80 years, or 30,000 days.This got him thinking: he was 40 years old and had another 40 more years to go. Breaking it down even further, Jimmy realized he only had 14,600 days or 350,400 hours left.

From that moment on, Jimmy decided to be responsible and accountable for his life. It was no longer about what he had done, could have done or should not have done in the past. Now it was about what he wanted, what he could do and what he would do to get it!

Inspired, Jimmy had made a list of everything that had gone wrong in the last 40 years and what he could do to help himself for next 40. Jimmy wanted to be sure that the next 40 years would be meaningful— not only for himself but for everyone as well.

That night, Jimmy started to reflect. For the first time in his life, he wrote down his wishes and what he needed to do to attain his goals in the next 10 years. In the end, Jimmy had a ‘Mission Impossible’ chart. From there, it helped him visualise how he could turn his failures into life lessons. The chart also helped him to focus better on his goals.

In this chart, Jimmy wrote down his six wishes. These are to live a meaningful life, be at the peak of health, restart his career, find his life partner, have a happy family and lastly, and lastly, be debt-free.

But, what was Jimmy’s current situation at that time? Could he really improve his circumstances?

Emotionally, Jimmy was not only grieving. He also had fears, self-limiting thoughts and a lot of negativity about the meaning of life. However, Jimmy was eager to change. He decided to not turn back and get a new perspective from outsiders instead. He also realised that he needed to improve himself to stay relevant.

Secondly, Jimmy was taking his health for granted and was smoking heavily. Having learnt his lesson to treasure his life more, he decided to keep his promise to his son by quitting smoking. He also decided to pick up and commit to one physical activity.

Thirdly, to end his frustrations about having no true friends and being unable to trust anyone, Jimmy wanted a journey of reconciliation. He wanted to make new friends and make a difference wherever he goes. His dream was to inspire hope and empower other people.

Fourthly, Jimmy wished to find a life partner. However, it was not easy to do so as he had social anxieties, a dysfunctional background, a history of failures and not to mention, an undischarged bankruptcy. To overcome these, Jimmy decided to be completely sincere to all the people he met and be honest about his past.

Next, to fulfil his promises to Shaun, Jimmy planned to build a happier family life through showing his love to his parents, by learning from his mistakes while being married to his ex-wife and to buy an apartment for him to live in.

Lastly was about Jimmy’s career path and massive debts. Jimmy aimed to build a strong career and get discharged from bankruptcy. He wanted to clear $600,000 of business debt, loans and unpaid bills that had mounted up. However, since he did not complete his education and had little technical knowledge, Jimmy knew he must work beyond the paper qualifications. He must work beyond the standard behavior, and not only hard, but also smart.

As William Barclay says, “There are two great days in a person’s life, the day we are born and the day we discover why.” Life is all about the journey, not the destination. What matters most is what you leave behind after you have reached your destination.

Earlier on, we heard of Jimmy’s ‘Mission Impossible’ chart which included his wishes, and what he could do to help himself achieve those goals. Now, let’s hear what exactly Jimmy has done over the next nine years. For those of us who are hoping to take charge of our life, perhaps there’s something we can learn from Jimmy.

Firstly, before he can expect others to like him, Jimmy knew that he had to work on liking himself first. This is because how he perceived himself indirectly influenced how others perceived him. So Jimmy reconnected with himself and began to accept both the good and bad parts of him. After much soul-searching, Jimmy discovered that his strengths were his sense of humour and sincerity towards people. After that, Jimmy trained himself to only have positive thoughts. For the longest time, Jimmy was living in his past. However, it was time for him to move forward. The only thing he needed in the past was to learn from them.

Secondly, Jimmy knew he has yet to unleash his full potential and was stuck at where he was in life. However, Jimmy noticed that he was surrounded by people who could not give him constructive advice to help him move forward. Hence, Jimmy not only needed to change his perspective, he also needed to change the people he associated with. He needed new friends who could tell him straight up what he could do to make his life better—friends like Richard.

Jimmy found constructive feedback to be very useful information. If similar feedback comes from different parties, Jimmy might learn something new about him that he never realised before. That was exactly how he came to know himself better and he used that self-awareness to further improve himself.

Once Jimmy changed his perspective and attitude, Jimmy’s life changed.

As mentioned earlier, the way people perceive themselves reflect how others see them. Based on this, Jimmy was of no value because that was how he perceived himself. To change this mindset, Jimmy started to put into practice all the tips he had read at Borders bookstore, back when he was still working at 7-Eleven. Jimmy started to consider all the feedback and criticisms he had received and worked on turning his flaws into assets. He decided to polish his networking skills, identify his life goals and focus honing his skills to achieve them. As he also learned that first impressions matter, Jimmy paid more attention to personal grooming, so he could always look his best.

By surrendering his life to the Lord, Jimmy’s life completely changed! He was no longer trapped in his past but started to move forward towards his dream future. So far, we have heard of two changes that Jimmy has done to his life to achieve his goals. Let’s hear what other things Jimmy resolved to do to restart his life our next episode this coming Thursday. Stay tuned and good bye!