I am grateful that God opened the door for me and my family to return to be part of the Taylor community again years after I graduated from Taylor.
Every day, I get to see members of our community pouring into one another’s lives in service. Our backgrounds and callings are varied, but we collectively accept Christ’s command to “let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14).
My eight years teaching at Taylor have provided me with opportunities to connect with brothers and sisters who are striving toward “living life with a due sense of responsibility,” as the Taylor Faculty Handbook says.
Taylor students are people with fantastic character and inquisitiveness, which makes me eager to come to teach them every day. I find that I am constantly learning along with them, feeling a deepening wonder at the world God has given us to study and enjoy. My wife and I feel blessed that we can raise children a few blocks from a campus where students provide strong role models of what it looks like to be men and women of God. While students are at Taylor, they are prepared well for the rigors of their disciplines, but they are also encouraged to grow into the people God calls them to be.
Before returning to Taylor, I had been enjoying my teaching position at a Christian sister institution, but it was in large part due to the faculty at Taylor that we decided to leave for Taylor. I knew the unparalleled commitment, humility, diligence and warmth that existed among Taylor faculty and staff.
My colleagues have treated me and my family with kindness from our first day back in Upland. One of my colleagues told me during my first year that we have a department where faculty members sincerely love one another, and I have found this to be true.
During my time as a student and faculty member, Taylor has gone through not only good phases but also hard spells of loss and pain. I have seen members of our community hold on to the anchor of their souls, bearing one another up and believing that he is able to keep them from falling.
My wife and I often run into our Taylor classmates at Homecoming, and they express to us that it must be amazing to be settled back at Taylor. We couldn’t agree more.
