[At the Pool of Bethesda] . . . One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there . . . he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" . . . Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:3-9, NIV.

I once had a fiercely independent patient who had been ill for many years with adult onset diabetes and heart disease. She finally ended up in the hospital, where it became apparent that the only way to save her life was to amputate her infected leg.

I presented her with the options. The first was that she could go on the way she was and end up living in a nursing home, where someone could take care of the progressive gangrene that would eventually take her life.

The second choice was to amputate her leg before it got to that point, which would mean that she could live a satisfactory life.

Her response was an emphatic, "No. I will not have it amputated, and I won't live in a nursing home!"

I tried to reason with her, but she just turned away. Reluctantly, I left. Later I was shocked to learn that a few hours afterward she died. There was no acute reason for her immediate demise. She was in poor health, yes, but I had expected her to live from six weeks to two years longer.

I'm convinced she willed herself to die. A person's thoughts can be incredibly powerful!

And then I discovered something Ellen White wrote on the power of the will. "By the exercise of the willpower in placing themselves in right relation to life, patients can do much to cooperate with the physician's efforts for their recovery. There are thousands who can recover health if they will. The Lord does not want them to be sick. He desires them to be well and happy, and they should make up their minds to be well" (The Ministry of Healing, p. 246).

If only she had used her willpower to live, and had exercised and eaten a healthy diet so she could have avoided obesity and its consequent health problems. Nothing forced her to adopt the unhealthy lifestyle of her parents, but she did. And in the end, instead of willing herself to live, as did the paralytic who picked up his mat and walked, she willed herself to die!

How can you use the power of your will to live a more vibrant life?

Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.