A Tribute...

JC died last Friday afternoon on his way home to Murfreesboro for the Easter weekend in a car crash. He was a member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship when I was a member/worship leader back in my ol' MC days. (Sooo...long ago...) I heard yesterday evening during Easter dinner with my old roommate and her family.

I don't know what else to do. So...a tribute to Joseph Christian Hoehne.

JC wasn't everyone's favorite person. Most people, if he were alive, would probably even dare to call him annoying. That's just truth. He was a quirky fellow, and I'm not going to coat the past by saying I was super cool to him. There were days when, if I didn't have a lot of time between classes, I would turn hurriedly or duck into the closest building if I saw him rollerblading my way.

He was in my small group when I was a junior, and he was a freshman. My senior year, because I was a married mom, I didn't get out to IV too often. So my last consistent interaction with JC was during that junior year, during mine and Walden's engagement.

Now that he is gone, he is desperately missed, and not just because he died so young. He was the type of person who touches your heart and your life in a quiet, unexpected way. He was passionate about God and God's furious forgiveness. I think that was the part of God that JC clung desperately to and understood so intimately, because it was the message of hope for the unbelieving. God the Forgiver was enticing to those who have not yet gotten comfortable with God, Lord, Savior. And that was the heart of JC's evangelical spirit. He was truly gifted with evangelism, with a rare burden for those who had not yet encountered his Jesus.
I can't wrap my mind around the idea that he spent Easter Sunday with Jesus the Risen. JC, transformed into his glorious self, completely renewed, ready for eternity. All evidence of the crash he was in, steel and glass breaking his body and robbing his life, all scars, all faults, all holes, all shortcomings, misgivings, imperfections, annoying habits...melted away. JC, eternal, glorious, completely worthy of his place in Heaven, robed in the righteousness and glow of being forever in the presence of the Lord.

For JC, no more times of doubt, no more questions, no more wondering if the Lord is up to something. For JC, no more shame over his sins, no more grieving the Spirit, no more pain and anguish over life's burdens. For JC, eternity, stuck in perpetual praise-mode.
During my brief time as a worship leader (or, lead worshiper), I had the unique gift and purpose to usher InterVarsity goers into the Lord's presence, into a state of learning and awareness of God's voice. I had the privilege of being God's tool to open their hearts, minds, and ears to God, into a place of worship that did not end with the last song, but that lingered as we dug into His Word, peeling back layers of His Heart, discovering His plan, looking in as God revealed more of Himself. That was my gift from God to me, as was my gift of music to others. I can't even fathom that...wow...JC is now in that place as a state of being. That place that makes your head swim, your ears thunder, your heart grow, your soul expand, your hands rise, your knees fall, your gut churn, your mouth dry, your blood rush...before the great and mighty and powerful and tender God of the Universe...JC is there. And that place has no end for him.

For JC, so undoubtedly there, so unquestionably and irrevocably there. He is there now. And with heavy, heavy hearts, we can still hope and rejoice in his Life, the Life we all are intended for. Oh, the weight of glory, pulling at our hearts, tying us to this earthly realm, but filling us with the innate knowledge, the hidden sense, the undercover notion that we were created for immortality...

In his life and through his death JC was an arrow to the Lord. May his memory challenge us all to grasp onto this life with the hope and belief in the next...