It started four weeks ago with a text message. “Pray for my brother,” Lindsey wrote. “He’s gone missing”.
Lindsey texted me that short message asking for prayer just as her world began to crash in around her. Her 17-year-old brother, James Eunice, went duck hunting early that morning. He never came home.
I never knew James, but I’m blessed to call his older sister one of my closest and dearest friends.
Lindsey came back to DC yesterday after four weeks with her family in Georgia. I had dinner with her tonight.
While she spoke of her time in Georgia and told stories of James, I struggled back tears. Lindsey, however, sat there calmly, telling me how an ocean of grace has covered her throughout all the weeks of heartbreak.
Throughout our dinner, I was continuously impressed and encouraged by how closely she has clung to her Savior through all of her heartache. God has truly been her sustainer.
Lindsey told me stories of James and how he lived a life of passion, never compromising his faith in a world that told him to. She told me about the outpouring of support from his classmates – all for a boy who made everyone laugh, loved others selflessly, and followed Jesus radically She spoke of the classmates who came to faith in Christ while they searched for James, acknowledging that James' influence was as strong in death as it was in life.
James touched more lives in his 17-years on earth than most people do in a lifetime. Throughout the weeks of searching and praying, thousands of lives have been touched – souls have been saved, faiths have been strengthened, love has triumphed. And all of it because a 17-year old lived a life dedicated to Him. James lived and breathed Christ – His love, His strength, His passion. And because of it – lives have been changed.
The story of James’ life and death has been so powerful, it’s swept across newspapers and television throughout the country. Facebook groups dedicated to James have thousands of members from all over America. And in perhaps one of the most touching moments throughout this past month, James’ story found its way to, of all places, ESPN.
You see, so incredible was the life James had lived that it touched the Head Coach of the University of Georgia's football team, Mark Richt. ESPN got wind of the story below and ran a segment on Sports Center earlier this week.
James was a 4.0 honors student who had been accepted to the University of Georgia. He was a two-sport star in highschool, playing both baseball and football, and had spoken to Richt about walking on to the football team at Georgia in the fall.
During James’ funeral last weekend, two of his teammates stood to speak. They read a letter that Richt had written to the Eunice family, expressing his own heartbreak over their loss and offering his prayers to the family.
At the end of the letter, Richt wrote, “Oh yeah, James made the team.”
His two teammates then held up an official Georgia jersey, on which were his last name and the No. 23 he had worn in highschool.
James' dream had been achieved. He had become a member of the Georgia football team.
James Eunice, 1993 – 2011
"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity.
And so we ask ourselves… will our actions echo across the centuries?
Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were,
how bravely we fought,
how fiercely we loved?"
