March 7, 2023

       Not much happening on the treatment front.  No treatment today.  I have the radiation every other day.  What I found is that for me the day after radiation is tougher than the day of radiation.
       I still have no word on the scheduling of the bone scan.  I have a feeling that I might camp on the doc’s doorstep tomorrow.  I have been waiting for two weeks for that to be scheduled.  Not typical for Mayo Clinic.
       We all have an impact on those we encounter, and they on us.  Do you ever wonder how you come across to others?  Are they blessed by seeing you?
       Yesterday I had two encounters on the opposite ends of the spectrum.  One was in a store and the checker was about as gruff as they come.  I had a bill to pay (long way to go to pay a bill!) and it was all he could do to nod when the transaction was over.  I couldn’t help but smile and say, “Have a good day, sir.”  Kind of like as Paul says in Romans: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
       I don’t think my smile heaped too many coals on his head though.
      On the other end was a young tech who took me from the radiation treatment room to the CT Scan that was just down the hall.  Emily was as full of life as anyone I have ever met.  The situation didn’t present the opportunity to ask, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she is a believer. 
       She then walked me back to the changing room and gave me directions on how to find the way out.  After a mentally and physically draining couple of hours, she was a lift to my heart.  It could very well be that God answered some of your prayers through Emily.
       I do wonder how I come across to others, especially to non-believers.  I hope there are times when they really need a lift that God places me (and you) in those circumstances.
      Let me share with you at least one time in my life that God brought help to someone else.  It happened when I was in the pre-op room facing the major cancer surgery on my leg.
       It’s a story that very few people have heard and one of the reasons that I think the Lord nudged me (nudged might not be a strong enough word) to post these journals, aka blogs.
       Lots has changed in the medical field in the last 20 years.  20 years ago the pre-op room at St. Mary’s Hospital at Mayo Clinic was a large room and the patients waiting for surgery were separated only by curtains.
       Next to me was a man I would guess in his 50s.  He was having major surgery. The curtain between us had been pulled back and we were able to see each other.
       The poor guy was thrashing around like no one I had ever seen who was heading to surgery.  The nurses had given him some medicine to help calm him down, but to little avail.
       After some time of praying in my heart for him, I finally turned to him and said, “Sir, I am a pastor.  Would it be okay if I prayed for you?”
       Like nudge above, consented wouldn’t be a strong enough word for his response.  I asked him for his name so I could pray for him by name. I prayed for him as I have done 100s of times for people heading to surgery.  Nothing earth shattering.
       But something happened in the man.  He calmed down.  Kind of like the Gadarene demoniac after Jesus delivered him—he was in his right mind.  We talked some before one of us was taken back for surgery.
       It took me a couple of days to start to recover from the surgery and when I did, I remembered this man, including his name.  I called the hospital switch board and asked if I could be connected to his room.
       Someone answered the phone and gave it to him.  I told him that I was the pastor who had prayed for him and I wanted to see how he was doing.
       I heard this huge commotion on the other end of the phone.  He didn’t initially say a word to me.  He raised his voice (in a positive way) to his family.  The gist of what he was saying to them was this, “You all thought I was hallucinating when I told you that God sent an angel into the pre-op room to pray for me and help me.  He’s on the phone!”
       As I recall, that’s the first and only time anyone has considered me to be an angel.  But for one moment in one man’s time of need, God placed me at just the right spot.
       Emily did that for me yesterday.