James Barry's heart stopped at 24 and he spent 24 hours on life support. The near-death experience shattered his identity as an endurance athlete and triggered a spiritual conversion to Christianity. He now sees health differently, focusing on serving others rather than personal athletic achievement.
They had no idea, like, if I was ever even going to wake up. I was on life support for 24 hours. When I woke up in the hospital, all my friends looked like balloon animals. So that's like my first memory. So at 24 years old, he was an endurance athlete, health and wellness creator. Then his heart stopped. I never had a true relationship with the Lord. I ended up giving my life to Jesus that day, and that was actually my rebirth. It literally is a supernatural transformation. What does that mean when you're defining your life by your athleticism and then you can no longer be an athlete? It was psychological. My roommate was like, dude, you don't look healthy. Health and fitness are 2 different things. I'm a lot less focused on the outcome now. I'm just a vessel to help others, to point others to Jesus, help them with their health. But I didn't really fully understand it until I'm staring death in the face.
