Editor’s Note: After receiving a devastating brain cancer diagnosis, Jay Hewitt made the momentous decision to compete in an IRONMAN triathlon while undergoing cancer treatment. This post, adapted from his book I Am Weak, I Am Strong, talks about the courage he found from a supportive community of believers to press on as he prepared for the 140.6-mile race.
This is how IRONMAN’s historic, first-ever full-distance and virtual triathlon worked: athletes from all over the world would register with IRONMAN for the race, download the official app, and sync it with an approved sports watch that would track distance, elevation, speed, and time.
It was each athlete’s responsibility to plan their own 140.6-mile course, taking into account both traffic and elevation change; essentially, you couldn’t plan a downhill course. Also, each athlete would have to figure out how to set up aid stations along the way so they could refill their water bottles and grab some nutrition.
Finally, at some point on the weekend of October 9–11, 2020, all the registered athletes would begin their races and try to go the distance without seeing the other athletes against whom they were competing.
That is a lonely 140.6 miles with a lot of logistics—any of which could go completely awry.
Building My IRONMAN Team
I talked to my wife Natalie about it. IRONMAN had put so much strain on our family. I was nervous to bring it up. She surprised me. In her wisdom, she pointed out that by planning our own course, more of our friends and church family could be there to support us.
I called IRONMAN and told them I was in. We called our good friend Brittany, who is extraordinarily proficient at mobilizing people for a cause. She is simply amazing. We asked if she would mobilize our friends and church community to help set up and staff the aid stations. She rounded up two hundred people to pitch in.
She arranged an opening ceremony where I would start the race in a wedding venue gazebo overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. She asked Jon Juroe, a contractor friend of ours, to construct a re-creation of IRONMAN’s iconic structure that would hold up the official finishing tape that IRONMAN would be sending out to us.
Brittany thought through every detail, even arranging a chase vehicle staffed with Kane Johnson, a paramedic and engineer with the Huntington Beach Fire Department; Jon Ankenman, a bike tech; and Corrie Mattson, a professional photographer.
While Brittany built a team of supporters, I kept working toward my goal. By the end of September 2020, I was finally able to swim two miles, ride a hundred miles, and run twenty miles. I was terrified to try to do it all in one day in under seventeen hours. I had never even run a marathon before.
I couldn’t imagine starting a marathon after already racing 115 miles of swimming and cycling, but I had to try. I had no doubt I was surrounded by a strong community of people who love me. Without these saints—other followers of Jesus—I’d have had no chance to set out to accomplish what I felt God had called me to do. I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Community Support
Down through the years, I’ve learned that finding the strength to overcome adversity and the courage to press on is exponentially multiplied by the support of the community of saints. When people believe in us enough to rally behind us, our spirits are encouraged and our hearts are filled with boldness.
I’ve tried so often to do things on my own. The myth of independence has let me down, and it will let you down as well. Resisting help will only cause you to stumble. I now understand that we can go much farther when we let those who love us help carry our burdens.
It takes humility to accept help. Humbling yourself can feel humiliating. But in the end, achieving the impossible can only come when you submit to a strength that is greater than yours alone. God will empower you by his Spirit to accomplish the calling he has placed on your life. He will surround you with his people, for there is strength in the community of saints.
Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord instructs his people to love one another by bearing one another’s burdens. It would stand to reason that if we’re commanded to bear one another’s burdens, we should also accept one another’s help. It may feel humbling, and even pathetic, to admit that we can’t live life on our own. It takes great courage to expose our weakness and ask for help. But accepting help does not mean we are pitifully weak; it means we are wise.
The Weakness of Jesus
Consider Jesus, who on the way to the cross, about to fulfill his life’s ultimate calling—to die for the sins of mankind—was weak on all fronts: emotionally drained by anxiety and dread, spiritually weary from crying out to the Father to be spared from a criminal’s death, and physically exhausted from standing trial all night and carrying a solid wooden crossbeam.
When Roman soldiers made Simon of Cyrene carry the cross for Jesus, he allowed Simon to bear his burden. Undoubtedly, at that moment Jesus could have utilized the dynamic power of the Spirit who would soon overcome death and raise him from the grave. Instead, he humbled himself and let Simon bear his burden.
Jesus was a unfailing example of what it means to be human and to live a life that is truly full. Let him serve as your example. We can find great encouragement to make it to the end when we allow others to bear our burdens. Reach out and let others lift you up.
Isolation will kill us; community will sustain us.
I am Weak, I am Strong
This post was adapted from I Am Weak, I Am Strong: Building a Resilient Faith for a Resilient Life by Jay Hewitt.
Even on the days you struggle to stay strong, you can live a resilient and hopeful life.
After receiving a devastating brain cancer diagnosis, Jay Hewitt had a decision to make: Should he give up on faith or practice what he preached and trust that with God all things are possible? In I Am Weak, I Am Strong, Jay chronicles his journey of turning toward Jesus even when circumstances urged him to turn away. Faith in action for Jay included competing in an IRONMAN triathlon while undergoing cancer treatment. His race was a grand gesture of love for his young daughter—and a call to resilience for all of us.
For anyone who is searching for hope in anxiety and grief, needs validation and compassion in times of doubt, is curious about faith in the face of death, or longs for a more authentic relationship with God, I Am Weak, I Am Strong will teach you that faith grows from the freedom to doubt.
I Am Weak, I Am Strong: Building a Resilient Faith for a Resilient Life is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Jay Hewitt is an Ironman battling brain cancer. He is a pastor who has proven that with God all things are possible. When faced with a devastating diagnosis that could have caused him to walk away from his faith, he decided to turn toward Jesus and allow God to teach him an invaluable lesson about what it means to find strength from weakness and allow God to provide him with resilience. Jay believes God created him to be a storyteller and has now given him a story to tell.
