My Dad

Handing the blog over to Shawn for the day.  He had written this note about his father on facebook. I felt it warranted time on the blog as well. Love his heart.

I've been thinking about my dad all day long. He would have been 62 years old today (10/24). One of the cool things that made me feel special most of my life was that my dad and my birthdays were only 6 days apart. Yet I never took notice to the fact that I usually had some type of a party that made a big deal of me turning another year older and when his birthday came around he was probably out working one of his multiple jobs trying to make ends meet. Now that I am a father of 3 I finally understand the great magnitude of who he was. 

Man do i miss him. I have many many memories that I could go on and on sharing. Some good and some not so good, like the time he and my brother Denny were working on the plumbing in the basement with the pipe open and I flushed the toilet upstairs. Not good. Then there was that great father-son moment when he decided to teach me how to change the oil in the car and just when the oil pan was full I dropped the filter in the pan and dirty oil splashed all over his face and I proceeded to run for dear life! Not good again. Or some good ones like, when he was able to make it to some of my games and he'd stand by the fence and watch, or when we'd give him a hug and kiss on the cheek and his whiskers would scratch us, or when he'd buy a keg of birch beer for our 4th of July picnics, or when he would laugh so hard he'd nearly pass out, or that moment when he sensed you were really hurting and he'd lean down and put his big fore arms on your shoulders before tenderly grabbing the back of your head to pull you in for a hug that you'd always though would be there. 

My dad was my hero, plain and simple. He fought to the very end. He put his hand to the plow and didn't turn back. Was he perfect? No. But he didn't pretend to be. Pastor Glenn Blossom said at his memorial service, "Dennis Shay lived life at the net!" (Illustrating his point by some intense volleyball games at our house.) 

I like to define manhood in this way (taken from the book, "Raising a Modern Day Knight" by Robert Lewis) A Real Man: Rejects Passivity, Accepts Responsibility and Leads Courageously. He Expects the greater reward - God's reward. This is how my dad lived and modeled manhood for me. I'm am most grateful for the legacy that he left for our family not just in the name "Shay", but more importantly in the name "Jesus". 

My father, through his healthy, fiery, youthful and younger man years, to his broken down, cancer riddled, last remaining years, grew in relationship with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am so very thankful for Christ's transforming redemptive work on the cross in my dad's life. Now with certainty, I look forward to worshiping alongside my earthly hero and all of the saints in the Kingdom of heaven forever!