The text message caught me by surprise. I pulled out my phone to read:

I just want you to know that you are an amazing man, and I deeply value you and your friendship. Thank you for all that you have done for me.

When I saw his words, I was overcome with emotion as I felt the tears rise to the surface. I tried to hold back and keep myself together as I sat in the restaurant.

My friend has been battling cancer for the second time in his life. I remember the phone call, just a little over 3 months ago, when he was feeling hopeless, faithless, and had decided he was going to die. He’d picked out a casket, made funeral arrangements, and admitted defeat.

But despite the understandable doom and gloom he was going through, he’s surviving. He isn’t dead. So what a shock it was to see him tell ME that I’m an amazing man, when I think he’s the amazing one. I can’t begin to imagine what he’s been through. All I’ve done is listen to him when he needed to talk. That’s not so incredible.

A lot of people in the world are dealing with their own personal hells. I have friends who are heartbroken, friends who are sick, friends who are unemployed, friends who are lonely… We survive because we have to, need to, or just reach a point where we don’t want to suffer anymore.

That’s the incredible thing about the human spirit. We can be reborn, renewed, relieved. We can start a new chapter. I’ve done it plenty of times myself.

I know someone, somewhere out there needs to hear this today. Find your warrior within and keep fighting.

Nathan….Thank you for this.

You’re welcome, Joe. I hope your month/week/day is off to a great start.

You don’t know how much I needed to read something like this today. Thank you.

Wow, Nathan—I didn’t write that text message, but I could have. If I had a cell phone that text-messages. Those words precisely describe how I feel about you!

My daily battles are so minor compared with fighting cancer. But still, some days, like today, I really need a warrior within and she is nowhere to be found. Probably hiding in my undies drawer next to that $25 tube of “personal” gel that didn’t do squat.

So I really, really need a special friend to be there, and listen, and offer love and virtual hugs and empathy and encouragement, and the right amount of naughty jokes. This is, as the commercial says, “priceless.”

And that is why you are amazing.