This Too Shall Pass

As every season changes, this past Spring brought changes that I was unprepared for. Standing at home plate on a baseball field in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, I received a phone call from my mom giving me the dreaded news that my hero, my best friend, the man who taught me everything, my dad had pancreatic cancer. The "C" word! My heart dropped, a cold chill spread over my body, and I somehow made it off the field and behind the outfield fence before I fell to my knees and asked God, "WHY????"  So many things going through my mind, I became furious with God.  How could a gracious and loving God allow the caliber of man my dad was to come down with this awful disease?

During the next 10 months I watched my dad FIGHT with everything he had.  I have seen him endure major amounts of pain without showing it in the 24 years that God allowed me to spend with him.  When I was 10 I saw him fall 25 ft out of a tree and break his right leg and dislocate several toes and he didn't even flinch.  He was a man's man and was the toughest person I knew.  During the last few months, I watched as he would take some of the strongest pain meds they make and not touch the pain that he was in.  If you asked him how he felt you would always get the same answer...."I'm great!" He didn't complain the whole entire time.  He had so much grace, strength, humility, DIGNITY!

He spent most of his last 3 months alive in the University of Louisville Hospital trying to recover from a experimental surgery.  I spent as much time as I could up in Louisville with him as I could.  In November I was at home and could tell that he was a little down.  I send him this text....

"I'm praying so hard for you this morning dad! We are going to get thru this and get you home and well! I'm praying that God places his healing hand on you right now and he heals the infection! I love you so much!!"

His response was simple. It was faithful. It was fearless....

"THIS TOO SHALL PASS! I love you too!"

January 12, 2013 a little before lunch my dad passed. I look back now and see how faithful he was. There is only one way that a human can be at peace with death.....its very simple....a intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  Dad wasn't scared of dying, he didn't fear taking his last breath, he knew where he was going! 

Dad worked tirelessly his whole life so that he could give and give is what Brian Taylor did! He gave so much to so many....from haircuts to wakeboarding lessons, from money to my friends for college expenses to the discipline of his leather belt to my tail, from the love of a grandpa to the twins next door to being my swing coach.  Over and over he gave...he gave confidence and courage, love and compassion, knowledge and skill....and never once cared about what he got in return. He may not have preached any sermons in the pulpit but the world was his pulpit....the love he gave his sermon and the compassion he showed his invitation. 

Dad knew that THIS TOO SHALL PASS and realized that this life here on earth was just a blink of an eye and so small compared to the eternity the has now started with the GIVING God we serve.  Dad is not gone...he is still here in everything that he has given to us! He is now preparing a place for us in heaven and preparing to give us even more!

So when I look back on that text he sent me 2 months before he passed, I now realize how true those words are.  "This too shall pass!" This life is so short and tomorrow is not promised to us.  We are not even promised that this life will be fair and easy....we are promised that if we have a relationship with God that our eternity will make it all worth it! My dad is enjoying that promise right now! I will miss him so much but smile because of what he GAVE me and where he is! 

This Too Shall Pass