Legendary figure skater and announcer Scott Hamilton has never allowed his circumstances to hold him back. And in a touching pair of testimonies for I Am Second, he shares how his faith in Jesus Christ got him through his greatest struggles.
In 1997, after winning four consecutive figure skating titles and taking home the gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Hamilton received terrible news: he had testicular cancer. While Hamilton successfully beat the cancer, he and his wife Tracie worried that treatment had left him unable to have children. It was during this worrisome time that Hamilton found God.
“I understand that through a strong relationship with Jesus you can endure anything. … God is there to guide you through the tough spots. God was there every single time, every single time,” he said. And, despite the odds, the couple was blessed with two sons, Aiden and Maxx, in 2003 and 2008.
But, unfortunately, Hamilton would receive more bad news. In 2007, he was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. But, remarkably, that tumor itself was a blessing in disguise – and that’s exactly how Hamilton chooses to view it.
It also turned out that the brain tumor was what had stunted his growth as a child, and which, amazingly, had gotten him into skating and shaped the rest of his life.
“Who would I be without a brain tumor?” he asks in the video. “I could choose to look at it as debilitating, I could choose to focus on the suffering. I choose to look at that brain tumor as the greatest gift I could have gotten because it made everything else possible.”
Watch Hamilton’s first I Am Second testimony, in which he discusses his struggles with his health problems, below.
Six years later, the brain tumor returned. Again, it was successfully removed; and again it returned in 2016. However, in March 2017, Hamilton announced that the tumor had remarkably shrunk without chemo.
Earlier this year, Hamilton sat down again with I Am Second again, and shared how, despite his numerous health problems, “I’ve never been more content, and I’ve never been more in love, and I’ve never been more at peace than I am in my faith.”
Wow. Hamilton’s story defines strength through faith. Furthermore, just as important as his message of faith is his message of gratefulness. Hamilton did not allow his diagnoses to defeat him. Instead, he chose to rise above, lean on his faith, and view them through a lens of gratitude. Not only did he survive, he thrived – and he did so through the grace of God.
Hamilton has been through more than most people ever will. But no matter what you’re going through, whether it be a scary medical diagnosis or just the day -to-struggles of life, Hamilton’s testimony shows that with faith in God, you can triumph over anything.
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