Lesson 5: "S" for Serving with Love: Healing, Hope and Humor Free Course
This podcast episode elucidates the profound connection between serving others and the healing process in the context of cancer treatment. We explore the concept encapsulated by the acronym "ACTS," wherein the final letter 'S' signifies the importance of serving others with love and laughter. Through this discourse, I share personal insights on how acts of kindness not only uplift those we assist but also enhance our own mental and emotional well-being. The episode further delineates practical ways to embody this service, including volunteering, organizing support groups, and sharing humor, all of which foster connection and joy. Ultimately, we aim to instill hope and resilience in those navigating the challenges of cancer, affirming that service to others can be a powerful catalyst for personal healing.
The discourse presented in this episode is steeped in the profound interplay between humor, hope, and the arduous journey associated with a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Brad Miller, the host, shares his own poignant narrative, elucidating how a diagnosis received shortly after his retirement catalyzed a transformative journey toward healing through laughter. The Cancer and Comedy Show serves as a beacon of hope, offering listeners not only personal anecdotes but also a structured five-day course termed the HHH course, which aims to equip individuals with the tools necessary to cope with the emotional and psychological challenges posed by cancer. Each day of the course delves into vital themes, including proactive action, the significance of connecting with a higher power and others, the necessity of adopting a positive mindset, and ultimately, the importance of serving others with love and laughter.
Throughout the episode, Dr. Miller accentuates the importance of service as a therapeutic mechanism, asserting that engaging in acts of kindness can profoundly uplift both the giver and the recipient. This dual benefit is explored through practical suggestions such as volunteering, organizing support groups, sending cards, and offering companionship, all of which serve to cultivate a sense of purpose that can alleviate the feelings of isolation often experienced by those battling cancer. The discourse culminates in a profound call to action, urging listeners to reflect on their personal coping strategies and consider how they might incorporate acts of service into their lives to foster resilience and joy.
Ultimately, this episode transcends a mere discussion of cancer; it is a clarion call for individuals to embrace hope and humor as essential components of their healing journey. Dr. Miller's insights resonate deeply, providing a framework whereby listeners can navigate their challenges with grace, supported by the enriching bonds of community and the uplifting power of shared laughter. It is a declaration that even in the face of adversity, one can cultivate a life imbued with purpose, connection, and joy.
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the significance of serving others as a means of healing and coping with cancer, highlighting the emotional benefits derived from acts of kindness.
- Listeners are encouraged to participate in a five-day course that introduces the 'ACTS' plan, which includes taking action, connecting with others, thinking positively, and serving with love.
- Dr. Brad Miller shares his personal experience with cancer, illustrating how humor and hope can serve as powerful tools in the healing process.
- The episode underscores the importance of community support, suggesting that organizing support groups can significantly enhance the emotional well-being of those affected by cancer.
- The speakers advocate for the sharing of humor as a vital component in uplifting spirits, promoting laughter as a therapeutic remedy for both givers and receivers.
- Listeners are invited to join a live comedy event aimed at raising funds for cancer research, showcasing the podcast's commitment to community engagement and support.
Transcript
Discover the ultimate secret recipe for battling cancer by serving up something that you're going to love. Want to learn more? Listen on my friend, listen on.
Speaker B:Cancer got you down Pretty grim, huh? How about a show that turns the grim into a grin? Way to go.
You made it here to the cancer and comedy podcast, the show to lift you up with hope and humor that heals. Now here's your Chief Lifter Upper, Dr. Brad Miller.
Speaker A:Hello and welcome my friend, to the cancer and Comedy Show. This is the show where we look to offer healing through some dreaded thing like cancer through hope and humor. My name is Dr.
Brad Miller and I'm one of those guys, I'm one of those guys who is impacted by a cancer diagnosis. It happened to me a month or so after I retired after 43 years of ministry.
My wife and I had big plans to travel, see the grandkids, do all kinds of things and wham, I got this diagnosis and it threw me for a loop. So much so I just had to laugh to keep from crying. You've heard that before.
Because I was fearful that I would spiral into a dark place and, and really not be able to recover.
So I knew that I had to take some massive action about this and that the result is what you're hearing right right now, which is the cancer and comedy show. And then this is a part of what we're doing here to spread a connecting voice about there can be healing even through.
Through hope and humor over something as dreaded as cancer. This is one part of what we're doing. I'm also created a course which we're talking about here today.
A course called the HHH course or the healing through hope and humor course. This is a free preview we're doing here today and for the. This for the last several episodes of cancer and comedy.
And it's a five day, five day course that we have enacted over five episodes here. On the first day, we introduce you to the axe plan, the acts plan. And we talked about why you would need such a course. This, the.
The psychological and psychosocial connections between a healing and hope and humor. And we introduced the word acts, A C, T S. On day two of the course, we talked about the letter A which was taking action and a change of attitude.
On day three of the course we talked about the letter C which was connecting to a higher power, God or however you understand a higher power and other people, how that's an important part of the healing with hope process. So that was the A and the C on the. On the fourth day of the course, we talked about the letter T, which stood for thinking.
A change of the way you're thinking to move from stinking thinking to. I'd like to call the new car smell thinking, brand new way of thinking.
And today we're concluding this five day course to complete the spelling out of the word acts with the letter S. And the letter S stands for serving others with love and laughter. Love and laughter. Serving.
Ever notice how some of the best relationships we have are when we do something nice for somebody else that makes them smile or makes them laugh. You ever, you ever just given your. I gave my grandkids a balloon the other day and they laughed and giggled and I love that.
That's one of the symbols we have here in cancer and comedy is the balloon. You know, there really are two types of people in the world. I believe there are two types of people in the world.
Those who love people and those who are wrong. You know what I'm saying?
That we have this view of things that if we instead of view things of how others may be wrong, if we view serving others, that can be really, really awesome. And guess what?
When you do those things, if you do things for others that makes them laugh and makes them smile and makes them feel love, then you're going to feel it too. That's part of the healing process is what we're talking about here today. Albert Einstein said this and I love this quote.
Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living. And I'm a real fan of classic music and I'm a prod.
I was a disc jockey in the 70s and into the 80s and I among many times played this particular song. Neil Sadaka, Laughter in the Rain. Remember that song? Some of you do.
Ooh, there's laughter in the rain I hear laughter in the rain Walking hand in hand with the one I love Ooh, how I love the rainy days in the happy way I feel inside. Love that song because it takes the image, you know, of a, you know, we think of rain and blues and that kind of stuff. And Jerry.
But the love he felt for his partner made him feel happy inside.
So we're going to do here today, we're going to conclude this whole process here today by helping you, point you towards your personal cancer coping credo, which is a statement that you can make that helps you to define your pathway through cancer or anything else bad happening in your life.
Hope you'll stick with us for the entire program today because we're not only having a lesson today about how to serve others with love and laughter that you gotta gotta be a part of.
We're also gonna be having, you know, a bad joke or an antidote, a humorous antidote that I like to tell those because I think I just like to have fun doing it. Then we also have our faith break segment which I have a lesson from, from the Bible or from scriptures or some, some faith oriented message.
I am a retired pastor and I like to share that because I'm just such a big believer that is a part of the healing process that we'll also have our lifter upper story which is where somebody has called in and gave us their story of how someone or something happened to them on their cancer journey that lifted them up or in some cases they lifted up somebody else. You don't want to miss that and be a part of our lifter upper story. We did want you to know that.
This episode of Cancer and Comedy is brought to you by the grand opening of Cancer and Comedy Live. We're launching this show with a live show show.
,:Rick Roberts, a fabulous comedian will be the headliner of this event and he has, he has his own cancer survival story and it's something that you want to hear and also for all of our listeners it will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube. You could go to cancerandcomedy.com events for all that.
But right now let's get into our content and let's have some content and teach a little bit about the, the lesson which is serving with love and laughter. Hello again, my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with you with, with the HHH free course. The HHA stands for healing through hope and Humor.
We've been working through this process for a few days now. This is the fifth day of the free course.
You can find more about this course at our website, cancerandcomedy.com free here at today we're talking about the last human in the letter, the alliteration acts, the word acts, A, C, T S.
And day one we talked about what the whole process here of having a process to follow to start to develop your credo is so important in the connection between health and humor and healing. We talked about that in day one. Day two we began to unpack the acts process. The A in the word axe stands for action and change of attitude.
On day three we talked about the letter C in the word acts, which stands for connection with God and connection with others. That's kind of the emotional and the spiritual part of things. Then that was day three and then day four, which our prior episode we had.
The word acts is the word T is the letter T would stand for thinking new thinking, a new way of thinking, new disciplines. We talked about new habits and new ways of living out your life now. And today is the is the letter S in the word axe.
And that stands for serve with love and laughter. Serve with love and laughter.
I just got to tell you, there is almost no greater feeling that a person can have when you serve other people and you put a smile on their face or you see a word, a vision of contentment, or you make them laugh. And that happens when you do something good for somebody else. You are fed, you feel better yourself.
Whether it's cancer or something else going on in your life, you feel better when you serve. And often it leads to love and laughter, the deepening of relationships that happens. That is healing, my friend. That is healing. You know that's true.
You know that's true. Service. You want to heal from cancer, you want to heal from anything else that's messing you up in your life.
Serve somebody, serve, and then you will be fed. So let me give you a few things, about five things that are going to be helpful.
Five tips here to be helpful for you, to apply in your life, to share your life.
Ten ways that somebody going or five ways for somebody going through cancer can cope with the disease, with this disease, this malady, by serving other people's needs. And that leads to love and laughter. Number one is to volunteer. Volunteer. Oh my gosh. How important is volunteering?
People like me, I'm a pastor and I depended on volunteers at my churches to help things to happen. And in different organizations that are health related, cancer and all kinds of other things in life, they need volunteers.
It doesn't have to be health related.
It could be volunteering with some other social agency in your community or are volunteering at the YMCA or some other group to help out in some way, volunteering at your church, volunteering at a social center, volunteering with some sort of organization, senior center, any of those type of things that will allow you to help other people. You do that by physically getting up and going there or getting on the phone or writing letters or whatever it is that they need done.
And that gives you, you know what that also gives you? Everybody, my friend. It gives you a sense of purpose, of doing something meaningful.
Because the Sense of meaninglessness that don't matter anymore is something that people with cancer often deal with. And it's a positive thing to do. It helps you and be engaged in your own journey. And it's a positive thing to do. It's productive as well. Volunteer.
That's number one. The second thing is to organize support groups. Now this is especially for people who are kind of that type of personality who wants to get.
Get stuff done. Support groups and things like that are very important and I encourage you to be a part of them.
You know, you've got cancer support groups and other support groups, you know, for all kinds of things that are out there. But maybe, just maybe you can be an organizer or help get things done. This is where you are the one serving other people so that you can do that.
There's lots of needs for that type of thing. As a pastor for church, I know I've had some of those in my churches and they're great.
And you go to your church or you go to your synagogue or you go to someplace, then you say, hey, I'd like to organize a cancer support group. I bet you they would love it. And you can help do it. What do you do in a cancer support group?
You share experiences, you provide encouragement, you listen. But you know, somebody's got to organize those things.
Somebody's got to set the meeting date and the time and get the coffee going and all that kind of stuff. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, you're that person to organize a support group. So number one, volunteer. Number two, organize support groups.
Number three, send cards and gifts. You know how. How cool is it to brighten someone's day by sending an uplifting card, a care package, a small gift. One of my favorite one is balloons.
Balloons is our symbol that we use here in cancer and comedy. And balloons brighten up somebody's day. You can almost can't see a balloon without looking up. Are being encouraged by it.
And if you organize a bit of a letter writing or card writing process to support people, it might be connected with one of these support groups that we've been talking about. That's a great thing to do. Spreads love and positivity.
And you know, I do the other stuff to do, social media, do Facebook posts and other things that you can encourage people. That's a good thing as well.
But you know, I just think there's something pretty awesome about getting a card in the mail or getting a little gift, you know, little gifts, something maybe like a Christmas ornament or a, you know, a little Piece of candy, you know, something like that. Or cookies. How cool is that? Some of you are really inclined for that kind of thing. Baking a pie or cooking, whatever it would be.
Do something good for somebody else. Send a card, a gift, and brighten somebody's day. And guess what? Going to help you, too. It's going to brighten your day when you do that.
So, number one, volunteer. Number two, organize support groups. Number three, send cards or gifts. Number four, offer companionship. All right, this is an important one.
Loneliness and disconnectedness is an important thing for people who are going through cancer. And many of us have different levels of how we are suffering or our abilities related to our cancer. Some of us are functioning well.
Another is not so much. Maybe you can offer companionship to someone suffering. It doesn't have to be someone with cancer, by the way.
It could be helping babysit your grandchildren. It could be spending time with other patients. It could be volunteering in your hospital to be someone who visits people.
It can be sharing stories with your neighbor. It can be all. And guess what? There's a lot of laughter. Can be a lot of laughter involved with these things.
You share stories, you laugh and you fall in love with people. And this means you're listening and supporting. You are emotionally connected to people when you offer companionship.
And so that's a great thing that you can do. Be a friend with your presence.
The other point we talk about presents, you know, like gifts, but be with your presence and you know, there's some great things you can do with it. So offer companionship. So we talked about, number one, being a volunteer.
Number two, organize support groups, sending cards and gifts, and offer companionship. The fifth one is really related to what this. What this show is all about. Share humor. Be intentional about this. Remember.
And write down and collect funny stories or jokes. Tell somebody a joke. One of the best ways you can cheer yourself up is to tell somebody else a joke or a funny story or a light heart antidote.
And you can share that. If you're in the hospital, you can share it with a nurse or somebody. If you're in a support group, you can share that with that as well.
It creates moments. When you tell a great joke or tell a great story, it creates moments of laughter and joy. And that gives you a moment of all.
Both parties, you and the other person, a moment of relief and joy. You laugh and you're happy. And, you know, we've talked before about how there's endomorphins and all kinds of things that happen as well.
Share humor in your life. So let's review. Number one, volunteer. Number two, organize support groups. Number three, send cards and letters and gifts.
Number four, offer companionship. Number five, share humor. That's how you can share life of love and laughter. Let me give you a bonus one being be a part of an online community.
Participate in online forums. There's plenty of them on Facebook, groups and other places.
We are and these are another place that you can connect not with just people in your local area, people literally around the world. Social media is a great thing for this to connect with other people. And I want to share with you a secret.
Here at cancer and comedy we're creating our own community and I want you to stay tuned and stay tuned to more episodes and our website and our newsletter which is newsletter.cancerandcomedy.com for for ways that you can connect with our community or online community and that you can be a part of that. Here we are here to listen to you and to serve you here at the cancer and comedy show.
You can always find out more about this, about our course and about other things at our by going to cancerandcomedy.com free for more about our free course. Now what we're all about here is pointing you towards in this whole process to build your own personal cancer coping credo.
So your homework for the day is simply this. Think about one way you can serve one other person. You might start with writing a letter or write a card to someone else.
Then they don't have to be sick. You can just do it to encourage somebody. It might be your own grandchild, but send a card to somebody to to do that.
That's one place that you can can do build your credo. Your credo. And this was part of the building. We're going to put all these things together.
If you go to our course, cancerandcomedy.com free, you going to find the whole process of worksheets and all these type of things are going to help you develop and process your credo so that you come out with a one or two sentence statement which is your statement of belief about your particular situation. That's going to help you to navigate everything moving forward. And I really want to highly encourage you to do just that.
I said early in the time of this course that I was going to share with you my own personal cancer coping credo. And I want to do that right now to close this lesson and to close our free course here on the cancer and comedy show. So my name is Brad Miller. Dr.
Brad Miller. I have a doctor of ministry. I'm not a medical doctor, just to be clear, but I have a doctor of ministry in transformational leadership.
And so I would say it this way. I, Brad Miller, I will not let cancer define me.
I will leverage cancer to refine my life to the better in my relationships and to drive me forward in my remaining days to fulfill the mission of sharing a message of healing through hope and humor and teaching the biblical message that a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. The credo of Dr. Brad Miller. Thanks for listening and thanks for listening to our course here on the HHH Healing through hope and humor course.
And we hope to see you on the website@cancerandcomedy.com free.
Speaker B:Well, lifter uppers, it is that time that we know you have been waiting for. It's time for our cancer and comedy segment. Dr. Brad's bad joke of the day.
Speaker A:Here's a story that's gonna put a bit of a smile on your face about love. An elderly man went to live at a retirement home. He'd never been married, didn't have much prospects during his life.
And now he was in his late 80s and he met a woman there at the retirement home. She was quite elderly herself, in her mid-80s herself. She'd never been married either. Neither had been married.
And they had both lived alone four years. Years. Well, lo and behold, the older gentleman began to feel a little tingle, began to feel a little, little energy, a little bit things going on.
He began to feel kind of attached to the woman. But, you know, he'd never been married, never really had much of a romantic life in his whole life. And he was super shy.
He had no idea how to express his feelings for her. He had no idea how she felt about him at all. They were enjoying each other's company, but it was a very awkward situation.
So the man thought about it and thought about it.
He was spending a lot of time with her and, and he began, and he began to think, how am I ever going to, you know, tell her how I feel about her and what are we going to do? And we're getting up in age here and I want to tell her before something happens, you know, and I really want to be with her.
So he was anxious, and after many days of anxiousness, he finally got up the courage to talk to her and tell her how he felt. And he visited her and her in her room at the retirement center. And he nervously said to her, he said, let's get married.
The woman was surprised to hear the news, and she raised her hands and exclaimed, that's a great idea, but who do you think would want us?
Speaker B:Okay, well, now it's time to shift gears a bit for Dr. Brad's faith it or Break it segment.
Speaker A:Faith it or Break It. In this episode of Faith at a Breaker, we talk about being a servant and how being a servant can serve you well and serve others.
As serving others, you are served as well. And it can cause a lot of laughter and a lot of love.
age of scripture from Matthew:A few years ago, one of my sons and I were part of a mission trip to the country of Colombia. He was about 18 at the time.
And we went there on a mission trip to help serve people live in the burials, the slums of the community, and to build homes, among other things. So we were tasked one day, and I will never forget the 105 degree heat that was just beating us up.
And we were tasked to build a home for a young family. And I remember the family barely had anything.
In fact, their child, who was about maybe 8 years old, was running around the construction site and only thing he had on Washington was purple underwear. And that was it. And the, the mom and the dad were trying to be helpful and.
But it was a construction scene of about a dozen people, myself and my son. And there was also people, students from various countries around South America and Europe.
So we had people not only from Colombia, but from several other countries speaking different dialects of Spanish and Portuguese. And I know we had people from England and from France, France and from Germany speaking French and German as well.
And we also had different, we had very, very poor people, extremely poor. Burial is a slum. And so we're building a home in a slum, slum of concrete blocks.
But we also had some people who were the wealthy people of the community. They, we found out later they were the shipping magnets. You know, they were part of the big shipping companies on this seaport city.
Incredibly wealthy people. The point is this. Everybody came together in this place, these dozen or so people in 105 degree heat to build this home for these folks.
The very, very rich, the very very poor students, people of different languages, incredible heat Working together. And it was a wonderful time. There was laughter and there was working together and camaraderie. There was service.
And nobody left that site who were not touched and moved by the service that took place. And certainly the joy of the family when we left that day and the joy of the family that had a new home was ecstatic. Here's my point, everybody.
Whatever place in life you're at, you can serve. I don't care if you've got cancer and you're debilitated. You can serve somebody else by bringing a good word.
For many of us can serve in other ways as volunteers and other things like that. Take the faith step and serve. It is actually a biblical mandate.
It says what Jesus did, we should do if we are following the Judeo, Christian, if we're following the Christian faith, but in whatever faith, Jewish, Muslim, anything, there's a point about serving others. That's the faith thing. Serve first. If you don't, if you let things go and we are not in service to others, then you will be be broken.
Because that's a life of not servitude to others that brings joy, but it's a life of greediness, of greed and selfishness which just brings you heartache and loneliness and brokenness. So the choice is yours, everybody. You can be a servant of love and laughter and faith, or you can be not and break it. Faith it or break it.
Speaker B:It's now time for our cancer and comedy featured segment as we hear from our lifter uppers. Did you know that you can be on cancer and comedy as a lifter upper listener with your uplifting story about your cancer journey?
Just go to voicemail.cancerandcomedy.com.
Speaker A:Our list lifter upper listener segment guest for today is Howard, who has an incredibly inspiring story of coping with cancer that occurred on two separate occasions in his life 26 years apart.
Speaker C:We all kind of understand this and you as a pastor I'm sure talked to, have preached about this in your past about darkness and light. We all have it. We all have it within us and we all walk in darkness and we all walk in light. And we can choose to do both.
And so for me, I've had, you know, lots of little speed bumps in my life. Everyone does. So I give a motivational talk called A look in the mirror and we look in the mirror and say, what do we see?
And a lot of people don't like what they see. They're living in that darkness. And if you live in that darkness too long, bad things can happen.
You can be more troubled, you can be more depressed, you can turn to alcohol and drugs, you can turn to be abusive. You cannot talk to your kids, you can lose your job. There's lots of bad things can happen when you stay in the darkness a little too long.
And many people coming out of COVID loneliness and depression, they're real and they're happening. And we have to help people move from there and be able to use and share their own light. So what I have to do is get back up again.
And we all get knocked down in life and in business and in family and in health. And the key is to get back up again.
And some of that key is on you to build that mental toughness, that resilience, that ability and energy to get yourself back up and get out of bed each day and be excited for that day. The other part is that letting others in to help lift you up.
And so I think those are really important things to know that in your time of need and we all have them to be able to know where to find that help, ask for that help and receive that help to lift you up. And I've had so many people in the, you know, with two stage four cancer diagnosis very differently, 26 years apart.
Speaker A:Howard Brown was our lifter upper listener today with his incredible encouraging story. You can hear more about Howard in an upcoming episode of Cancer and Comedy.
And we would love to hear from you your incredible lifter upper story by contacting us@voicemail.cancerandcomedy.com and leave us a message. Hey my friend, it is about time for us to close the curtain on this episode, this preview episode of the cancer and comedy show.
It has been so good for us be together, hasn't it? And you can look forward as to us being together again next week. So make sure you connect up with us that way.
And don't forget, mark your calendars that they'll grand opening of the cancer and comedy show is coming up before you know it. It's a live as in live and in person clean comedy cancer benefit show.
,:Now, if you can't make it in person, the good news is that it's going to be live streamed on our cancer and comedy YouTube channel and on our cancer and comedy Facebook page so you can check those out. We'll put links to that in our episode notes. But here's why you want to be there either live and in person or live streaming.
Our headliner is a hilarious clean comedian by the name of Rick Roberts. You want to look him up, you look up some of his videos. He has performed on national television.
He's performed all over the country to sold out venues and corporate events and all kinds of things. He is incredible. You want to check him out, he's going to be with us.
We'll have some other special guests with us and some other opportunities to have some fun at this Clean Comedy Live event and live and in person. But you want to check that out and be part of the grand opening of the Clean Comedy Show.
You don't want to miss that and help us pass the word about that that we can raise some great funds and other things that we can do to support cancer research. So don't miss it. That's for more information about this and get all the details. Here's where you want to go. So Write this down.
Cancerandcomedy.com events cancerandcomedy.com events.
,:If you really have benefited from what you've heard here today on the cancer and comedy show and the course that we've done and the other things we're working on have touched you your life, please follow us. Here's what you do. Cancer and comedy.com follow and that's how you can follow or subscribe to the show. It really, it really helps us.
It helps us to help you and so many cancer victims who are stuck in a grim place and they need a little grin in their life. They need something to cheer them up.
Because when you follow us, when you follow the cancer and comedy show and rate and review the cancer comedy show, you do just that. You help us to help others to turn the grim into a grin.
You go to cancer and comedy.com for follow and that's where you'll find the direct links to follow on Apple podcasts for you iPhone people, there's also a link to Google podcasts for Android fanatics and for you music people, there's a link to Spotify and Ready and for video folks, there is a link to YouTube. There's no excuses. Go to cancerandcomedy.com follow and you will find yourself there.
I can't say enough that this has been an incredible joy and delight to share some laughs and maybe a tear or two with you today here on the Cancer and Comedy show, my friend. We'll be back next week with another episode of Cancer and Comedy. So listen on until next time, this is Dr.
Brad Miller reminding you that a cheerful high heart is good medicine.
Speaker B:Hey, thanks for joining us on the Cancer and Comedy podcast with Dr. Brad Miller. Make sure you visit our website, cancerandcomedy.com where you can follow the show and get our newsletter. Like what you hear?
Then tell a friend about Cancer and Comedy, the show that lifts your spirits with hope and humor that heals. Until next time. Keep turning the grim into a grin.
