You Can Do More

The phrase “you can do more” has come before me twice recently.

My son was at a pastors’ conference and privately, the speaker inspired George with the words, “You can do more.” While going through some medical therapy, I met with my trainer and was hoping to have a comfortable plan of exercising. I offered to walk 10,000 steps a day, except Sunday, and do three cardio activities per week. His eyes pierced mine and he said, “You can do more!”  

In Romans 12:1 we are challenged to do more: “...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God…” It’s not easy to live as a living sacrifice. This sacrifice is only possible when our mind is renewed, disciplined, and focused to do more. We take our thoughts captive and we find the mind of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

On my last visit to the mountain village of Tom Gateau in Haiti, I watched a woman who was 90 years of age walk up a steep path on the mountain with a load on her head. I asked her, “How do you climb this path at your age and with a burden?” She told me, “I just keep telling myself I can, and I must, and I take another step.” That is what life is about; we just take another step of obedience to Him day by day.  

Life is doing more: one more medical visit, one more treatment, one more chemo, one more test, etc. And we need to be challenged to be confident and be assured that it is not in our strength that we take the next step. We don’t give up. We don’t look back. We feel an exhilaration by the power of the Holy Spirit to do more. We do not do more just for pleasures that pass away, but we do more to be holy and acceptable, and to find and act on His will for our lives each day.

Thank God for the examples in the Bible of men and women who did more. Paul and Silas in Acts 16:23-25 were out ministering...called of God. The mob came against them and ordered Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten with rods. They were put in the inner cell of the prison with their feet fastened in stocks. In their pain and suffering, Paul and Silas did more. They began to sing and told those in the prison about Jesus.

I finally joined the local gym to begin my commitment to the best health possible and do His will; to present my body as a living sacrifice. It was not all joy as I stretched with a 10-pound weight, but I saw someone next to me lift two 30-pound weights. I can do more! I’ll go back to the gym. Exercise is another form of medicine for health.

The greatest example of doing more is Jesus. On the cross, in the most excruciating emotional and physical pain, He assured a sinner that he would be in paradise that day. He prayed for His Father to forgive those who crucified Him. He looked down at his mother and asked John to take care of her. He did more...much more. He did the monumental act of freeing us from sin and giving us life now and for eternity. He did more. ~Jeanne DeTellis Loudon