It’s not often that the words “cancer” and
“encouragement” show up in the same place. Today, I got to see two people
with cancer connect with others in a meaningful way…it was a God moment.
I was visiting a with friend at
Willamette Cancer Center at Riverbend. He was in the middle of a chemo
session. He was keeping a good face, but the chemicals were taking their
toll. As we visited, another man walked by and stopped. Normally,
this man would have walked out a back door. Today, he walked to the front
and “just happened” to go by us.
“I know you,” he said to me. I
introduced myself and called him by name. He said he was doing fine and I
told him I was fair. That’s when he said he was closer to fair than
fine. It was becoming obvious he was not either. My friend fished
into a bag and pulled out a wristband. On one part it says, “cancer
sucks.” On the other side, it says, “choose joy.” The man was
grateful; this gift from a fellow traveler picked up his spirits.
This man is friends with a group of pastors
I meet with monthly. I invited him to join us. He said he
would rather not but would see me some other time. No more than five
minutes later, he was back and asked if he could still join us. Most
definitely, I said. He joined us for coffee and a good discussion about
how to handle a sticky church issue. Everyone at the table
benefited. All this because this man chose to leave his cancer treatment
by a different door.
In all this rambling, you may not see what I saw. I could
see God connecting his kids for encouragement and support. He was helping
us share joy, life and wisdom. He was opening opportunities to love each
other in the midst of very difficult circumstances where there are no easy
answers. The good news is we took those opportunities and made the most
of them today. What fun! What a blessing. Wow, how good God
is to open the doors to help us walk together.
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