HippoChurch

We held a memorial service today for Michael Colwell, MC as we all knew him around the office. Michael fought a courageous battle against cancer for the last few years. It was first discovered as skin cancer, but it moved into his blood stream. A couple of years ago he had some lymph nodes removed and was cancer free for a good while, but it showed up again a few months ago and moved relentlessly against his body. MC was 31 years old and leaves his wife and two small boys behind.

Throughout all of this, I never once heard MC complain about the hand he’d been dealt. The guy just continually amazed me. I remember a conversation we had over a year ago. I asked him how he was dealing with all of this - the uncertainty, the treatment and side effects, etc. I’ll never forget Michael’s response, “Tank, all I know is that I’m alive today and I’m grateful for that. I’m not going to let what I can’t control ruin the time I have.” That was Michael in a nutshell - always positive.

One other story about MC. Michael went to Clemson, where he received his first Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (his other was a Master’s in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary). Being a UNC grad myself, Michael and I traded lots of good-natured barbs when our teams met. He always enjoyed the football matchups, while I held the upper-hand in basketball. Well, if you remember this year’s basketball meetings between Clemson and UNC, they both were led by Clemson by large margins until Carolina forced them into overtime, where they won both. The meeting in Chapel Hill was frustratingly close to historic for MC. Clemson led by as many as 23 in the second half. Surely this was the year Clemson would end their 0- for 53 stretch against Carolina in Chapel Hill. Yep, Clemson has never beaten Carolina in basketball in Chapel Hill. Well, sure enough the Heels came back and got it into overtime, where they won. I couldn’t help but watch and wonder about the roller coaster of emotions for MC as he watched.

The next day I came in the office and walked over to MC’s cube. We just started laughing and I said, “Come here dude” and gave him a big ol’ hug. Every memory I have of Michael is positive. I love that.

By the way, you may not have known Michael, but over 300,000 of you have already been affected by him. You see Michael wrote the groups curriculum and discussion questions that supplement Andy’s DVDs and online sermons. A brilliant and humble guy. He poured himself out, aspiring only to glorify God. MC, you are deeply missed by all of us. Thanks for loving your wife, your boys, and your God with all you had. You took the life God gave you and lived every moment of it.