As I said in my last post, I went with some students to a memorial service about Eve Carson last week. There were over 10,000 students, faculty, family, and friends of Eve in the Dean Dome and the service was so beautiful. Eve's friends said the most wonderful words about her, they described her as one of those rare people that you meet that longs to change the world and is actually doing something about it. Here is a little of what the student body president just before Eve, Seth Dearmin, said about her:
"Eve was certainly more than a laundry list of superlatives [...] Let us today shed our last moments of silence for Eve. For though she led her life fully, she was not able to lead a full life. From this point forward, we must speak loudly and act boldly. Eve's mantle has been passed to us."
Eve was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow who studied abroad in Cuba and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program. She was a political science and biology major. She was one of the top students in the class and was valedictorian of her high school. People just adored her, she was always dancing and making people laugh. Her best friend Anna said that Eve genuinely loved getting to know people and validated them when ever she could.
Walking up the bleachers I started thinking to myself how rare a life like Eve's is because there aren't many people out there who believe they can make a difference in this world. I thought to myself- although I likely don't have the courage to do so-that I would like to trade my life for Eve's, so that she might go on living and impacting people. Then it dawned on me in a way that's what I'm doing here at Chapel Hill. I will likely never travel like she did and achieve academically but perhaps I can lay down my life in order that students here at UNC will know Christ in a deeper way. Knowing God through relationship with Jesus is the only thing we can do with our lives that will truly bring transformation. And that will last forever.
And you don't have to be a full-time campus minister to do so, you can trade your life for other people's just by spending some of your time praying for them, offering a listening ear even when you need to be doing something else, and by sharing what God has given you.
Katie, my SISTER, is marrying her boyfriend Drew! She came to visit me last week and Saturday when she flew back to Chicago Drew popped the question. When I tell people about the two of them I tell them about how I don't know how two people could be better matched up. If I could handpick a guy for my sister, it would be Drew. The joy I feel about a guy like him joining our family is inexplainable. He brings so much laughter and depth to our relationships, particularly how he loves my sister and is a big brother to Steven. I see God reign in their relationship and they are so in love and selfless towards one another. This is such good news.
