It was a brisk September night when I walked into the room and saw a man whom some thought of as a familiar face, but to me was a new face. He was wearing cargo pants and a white t-shirt with a flannel on top. He was tall, or perhaps simply average though appearing tall from my 4.5 foot vantage point. He had some hair, a patch down the middle yet none on the sides. He had on a pair of wire frame glasses over his big blue eyes and a grin across his face. I did not know what I thought of him as he appeared to have a strict demeanor, and it would take me a few weeks to figure it out.

Later I learned that his name was Jason Smith, that he was my youth pastor, and that he was an ex Marine. I originally thought little of the latter part, besides that it may have contributed to his seemingly strict demeanor. Come high school, however, I realized that although this man seemed like a tough guy at first glance, once you got to know him he was really not like that at all.

One day he bet a boy in the youth group that his team, the Florida Gators, would beat the boy’s team in the Sunday night football game. The supporter of the losing team would then be forced to wear a dress to youth group the following week. However, much to our disappointment, the Gators won that week, but weeks later failed to pull through a second time for Jason. The consequence was a pink shirt, a bright pink polo shirt, that he had to wear while preaching to the congregation the following Sunday. It was then that I realized that I really had nothing to be afraid of, he may have had a tough guy exterior but inside just had a funny and kind heart.

Jason was always quite the jokester; he told many jokes but one was more frequent than the rest. We referred to this particular joke as the panther joke and it was never funny in its own right but funny simply because it was a youth group classic. It went like this:
“Knock knock.”
“Whose there?”
“Panther.”
“Panther who?”
“Panths (pants) or no panths I’m going swimming!”

Jason also always loved starting Sunday School with the weekly installment of news you probably will never use. It included stories from all around the world, weird laws, stupid people, celebrities or new inventions. One week we were told that Justin Bieber may have to pay Germany for the care it took of the monkey he left behind, and how in Utah birds have the right of way on all highways. His sense of humor was always present in everything he did; from teaching to shoveling snow to eating cookies he never failed to make you laugh. But, August of 2013 came and everything, even that seemingly ever-present sense of humor was put to the test.

August 26 Jason got a call from the doctor he had been in to see earlier in the month. It was the kind of call you never want to get. The doctor was calling to tell Jason he had a brain tumor. While most people would be angry and upset Jason’s Facebook status read: “No complaints. All good. I am blessed.” That surgery was able to remove 95% of the kiwi sized tumor on the back half of his brain, unfortunately however that 5% that remained was cancerous. It was a stage four glioblastoma brain tumor. In Jason’s words: “If you were to ask for a brain tumor this is not the one you would want to ask for”.

Despite all this, however, he never lost his fighter attitude that he developed while in the Marines. For example, just hours after surgery he was eating a full meal of baked haddock, red roasted potatoes and coffee. The following day he continued to defy the odds and was free of IV’s and pain meds and was eating kale chips, watching football and chatting on Facebook a mere 26 hours after brain surgery.

Jason continues to push on, fighting the cancer with all that he has. While he may wish it had never happened; in true Marine spirit he is “relishing the fight” while it lasts, through brain surgery and six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. He continues to inspire people with his attitude and outlook on the situation day in and day out. If you were to ask him how his first day of chemotherapy went, he would reply “just stick your head in a microwave for 10 minutes, then you’ll know”. Here’s to one of the strongest and bravest men I know- Jason Smith.