A few years after I met Jesus, I met Cliff Jacobs. He was a 12-year-old boy with a contagious smile. We met at the baseball field in Sardis City, Alabama, in 1997. Cliff and my son Bobby were on the same baseball team that year. They became good friends and spent a lot of time together.
Cliff was strong in his faith, and later that year, he announced his call to preach. This did not come as a surprise to me. He loved his Lord, and he loved people. God’s hand was upon him. Lives were being changed, and people were surrendering to God. Cliff was making a difference in the Kingdom. He was faithful and an obedient servant of the Lord.
In the Spring of 2000, Cliff was diagnosed with a rare adolescent cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. The courage of this young man impacted my life forever. He began a long, hard battle with chemo, radiation, and surgery. Cliff was given a 20% chance of surviving, but he said, “I am going to trust God and I am going to keep preaching.” His faith was strong and solid as a rock.
One year later, Cliff was in remission and doing well. He gave God all the glory, and the Lord increased his opportunities to go, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. It was a wonderful year for my young friend. Revival was breaking out all around him.
It was the Spring of 2002 when the cancer returned with a vengeance and showed no mercy. A tumor was hiding in the spinal cord canal, and it had spread to his bones. I watched Cliff pick himself up from the devastation and become more determined to share the gospel. He was back on chemo and in a lot of pain. Most of his days were spent at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. He never turned down an opportunity to go and preach, no matter how sick he was.
In the Fall of 2002, I was driving home from work on a Friday afternoon. The Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, “I need you to help Cliff write his story.”
I laughed out loud and began to plead my case. “I can’t write a story. I hated English. My grammar is horrible. I don’t have time. I have a job, a husband, children, dogs!! I don’t have the money to publish a short story. I can’t do this. You are asking a lot. I’m watching my young friend suffer and he’s dying. Why would you ask this of me?” I pulled over at a service station and had a breakdown. I cried for a long time. I cried for my friend Cliff. I cried for those of us who loved him. I cried for his future that he would never experience.
I went home and called Cliff. I shared with him the conversation that I had with the Lord. He replied, “I knew I had to do this, and I was just waiting on Him to send someone.” We began working on In the Shadow of His Cross. We finished the book on a Thursday night, and he went softly into the night on Saturday and entered God’s Paradise on September 20, 2003.
Everything we needed to publish his testimony, God provided. I stood amazed at how God orchestrated all of it. It’s not well written, but it’s beautiful. It’s not a bestseller, but it’s meaningful and carries the good news of Jesus on every page. All during this process, I felt so inadequate, but the Lord kept encouraging me to press on, just as Cliff pressed on. Cornerstone Baptist Church in Boaz paid to have it published. It was all for the glory of God.
In the Spring of 2004, In The Shadow of His Cross, The Cliff Jacobs Story, was published. A few weeks later, on a Sunday, my husband and I were waiting in line at Ryan’s Restaurant in Boaz. They were very busy that day. One of the waitresses approached me and, with tears running down her face, she began to share with me what God had done in her life. Her Mother gave her a copy of Cliff’s book. She shared that she had been very depressed and had thoughts of suicide. The night she read Cliff’s book, she gave her heart to Christ, and those thoughts disappeared. We stood there crying and rejoicing. In that moment, I realized how important it is to be obedient to the Lord. He equips the unequipped. He provided everything we needed to see this project through, and this young lady’s life was changed.
Brian A. “Drew” Chalker wrote a poem. The first line says, “People come into your life for a reason, a season, and a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.”
Cliff Jacobs made me want to be a better person. He taught me about obedience, trust, and perseverance. My faith in God increased because of the influence he had in my life. I want to be brave and finish strong. Cliff was brave and finished strong. He was in my life for a reason, a season, and will be with me a lifetime in eternity.
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” (II Timothy 4:6-8)
Dana Hill
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#danahillblogs