“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”
“It’s important that everyone knows that I am so much more than the bad things that happen to me.” Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski
Many of you are probably familiar with Jane after her appearance on the America’s Got Talent (AGT) show in 2021. If you haven’t watched her performance it is well worth looking up online – just Google her name.
Jane appeared on AGT during a lull in her cancer treatments. The judges didn’t know it but as she told the camera after her performance she was given a two per cent chance of surviving the metastatic cancer that she had been fighting for years.
Despite being ‘golden-buzzered’ into the AGT finals by none other than Simon Cowell himself, Jane had to withdraw in November of last year because of the worsening cancer, and passed into eternity in February of this year.
It would/could never be said on the America’s Got Talent show but the inspiration for Jane’s ability to be “so much more than the bad things that happen to me” and live by the wisdom of ”You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy” came from her fervent relationship with Jesus Christ.
A couple of weeks ago as Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you enjoyed the blessing of experiencing heartfelt gratitude for/in your life. Gratitude is a feeling all of us experience, but it is also a quality of character that needs to be encouraged and nurtured as we observe parents doing with young children. Being thankful in our daily living is the key that unlocks the door to the abundant gifts of contentment, peace and joy.
In the culture wars that are raging one of the battles is exactly around this. Many folks want the focus to be on eliminating the oppressions that keep people from being able to achieve equity, inclusion and happiness. These folks believe the systematic prejudices and barriers have to be destroyed before people can experience contentment, peace and joy.
But I suspect this is not that unlike how many of us look at our own lives, even if subconsciously. As well-trained “consumers” we often feel like we will be happy when we get that new car/pickup or buy our dream house or find the ideal person to marry or win the lottery or find a better job or get a new pastor at church or …. Moreover many of us find it much easier to complain about the negative things in our lives than to talk about the many, many blessings we experience.
Nightbirde Jane’s life wisdom echoes the sage old chestnut from ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus ”It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
When Jane says “It’s important that everyone knows that I am so much more than the bad things that happen to me” she is saying that her terminal cancer isn’t going to define her living or rob her of the appreciation of all the good things in life that outnumber the bad.
And when Jane says “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy” she is bearing witness, as someone with stage four cancer, that it is possible to live above and beyond the bad things that happen to us in life and to take hold of contentment, peace and joy.
The great line from the chorus of Terri Clarke’s old country song comes to mind – “You Can Feel Bad If It Makes You Feel Better.” We all know someone (maybe even in the mirror) who spends way too much time talking about all the bad things that were/are done to them. Dwelling on all the things that make them feel bad somehow makes them feel at least a bit better, even if it doesn’t help them rise up to embrace joy.
But God created us for more than slightly moderated misery. Jesus once said “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And Paul said “I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).
Bad things, suffering, unfairness, oppressions, etc. are a given in life. But allowing these bad things to define the quality of your living is NOT! And waiting until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy is also NOT!
Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski had all kinds of reasons to be bitter and angry about the cancer that robbed her living and life. Instead she chose to focus on how her life was about so much more than the bad things that were happening to her. And instead she chose to NOT wait until life wasn’t hard before she decided to not just live with contentment, peace and joy, but to share these divine gifts with so many others.