Stephen Taylor: My Brave, Faithful Father

My father, Lowell Taylor, was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer in December 2007.

When I asked how I could pray for him, he said, “Please pray for two things-  that I may continue to serve my Lord and others and that I will be able to bear the pain that is sure to accompany my illness.”  That was it.

For the following 2 years and 4 months that he lived after diagnosis, he did all he could to serve other people even as his body was being destroyed from the inside out.  In the last six weeks of his life, he planned his entire memorial service from choosing the hymns and their order, the speakers and musicians all with a decided theme of celebration.

The day of the memorial service came and people from 800 miles away participated as a gesture of thanks for the many ways he had served them.  The service indeed was a celebration of the love he had for Jesus and Jesus had for him.

I hope my outlook would be so simple, yet so bold should I find myself in similar circumstances.