To members of the 2011 Senior Class of Whitworth:
When we learned that you are choosing to designate your
Senior Class gift to the Daniel Burtness Leadership Award fund at Whitworth we
were very touched and deeply honored by your thoughtfulness and
generosity. Thanks very much for
remembering Daniel in this way and for incorporating him into your graduation
celebration. We wish we could be there
to express our heartfelt thanks to each of you who contributed, but know that
we are there in our hearts!
As a family, we truly wish Daniel was still alive and that
he would be graduating with you now. For
those of you who knew Dan, you know that he was a very special guy who had a
deep passion for people, for God, and for life, and that he expressed this
passion in his own uniquely charming and sometimes quirky ways. Though short, his time at Whitworth was rich
and transformational for him.
For those of you who did not personally know Daniel, here is
an email message that he wrote to some friends just weeks before he died. These words illustrate Daniel’s faith and
passion better than anything we can now write on his behalf.
"Goodness, you are all some
awesome crazy people and I love you all more than you know or I can tell
you. And this is life – it smacks you in
the face – it blesses you in countless ways – it confuses you to the point
where you forget who you are and where you're going. God hasn't shown me a lot lately – I think
He's trying to get it into my head that He is so much in control – anything and
everything in my life is in His hands. And I am struggling. I am struggling to let go. I want to stress about where my life is going
– who I am, who I become, and how I affect people. God wants me to care; He doesn't want me to
worry. ‘Beautiful is the moment in which
we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as
long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to
do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us to be.’ Archbishop Oscar
Romero's words seem so right in my head, but I am struggling to take them to
heart . . . a lot. I guess my prayer for
myself and for all of you lovely people is that of Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane, ‘not my will but Yours be done.’
I pray that we can live ‘in the deathless Truth of His presence’ because
this is life. This is what God gave
us. Rejoice and be glad. I love you all, but God loves you more – good
thing. Love and Peace."
Our prayer for you each as you graduate and move on from
Whitworth is the same as Daniel’s – may you “live in the deathless Truth of His
presence” and may you “rejoice and be glad.”
God bless you each as you move on into your next adventure
and congratulations!
Grace and peace,
John, Carol, Hannah, and Ben Burtness
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