Little Encouragements

The Mayo Clinic has wisely posted a couple of wonderful encouragements in the radiation treatment area.   In the long hallway that leads from the treatment area back to the waiting room there are eight large 4' X 12' "National Cancer Survivor's Day" banners, 2001 to the present, each with scores of signatures of cancer survivors.  "Ben Jones, prostate cancer, 13 years," "Sarah Jennings, breast cancer 23 years," "Susan Larson, ovarian cancer, 4 years," etc.  Walking down that hallway each day, you can't help but think to yourself, "There IS hope...if they can do it, I can do it!"

I also had the privilege of witnessing a wonderful "graduation" ceremony for one gentlemen early this morning.  When you complete your course of treatments, you get to ring a bell in the waiting room.  The man's wife and teenage daughter came with him to his final treatment at 7am.  The joy and anticipation on their faces was exciting to watch.  There were hugs and kisses and picture taking, and when he finally reached over and rang the bell, the three nurses and seven of us in the waiting room cheered as if he had just won a marathon.  I guess in a way, he had.

A signed poster on the wall and a bell in a waiting room are small things, but their power to celebrate and provide encouragement are enormous.  Maybe there's something small each of us can do, seemingly insignificant to us, that has the power to encourage some weary person along their own journey of faith.

"...and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Heb 10:24).