Suicide/Prayer

In a recent piece written by Rich Larson, “It’s Not What You Think”, he poignantly and skillfully describes the misunderstood and unpredictable nature of depression and suicide after the death of an adored musical artist, Chris Cornell. In this piece, Larson writes:

…it’s really about depression and cynicism. Those two go hand-in-hand, along with their nasty little sister, anxiety. When the three of them get going, they just eat hope as quickly as it can be summoned. That leaves despair and despair is exhausting, not just for those who experience it, but for the people around it as well. So we keep it to ourselves because we don’t want to be a burden. And then it gets to be too much. Doesn’t matter if you’re a student, a mom, an accountant or a rock star. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written about it your entire life as a means of keeping it at bay. It doesn’t matter if the music you made about it brought in fame, respect and millions of dollars. It doesn’t matter if your entire generation has suffered from it. Depression makes you feel totally alone. You hit the breaking point, and then, like Chris Cornell, you die alone in the bathroom

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Last night my brothers son, Lee, 37 years old shot himself to death.    Lee was a deputy in our small home town in Illinois for years but because of some issue he had quit recently.  He loved being on the police force, was being trained to become a Federal Swat team member.  He has a wife and two children but all was not well on  the home front and yesterday they served the divorce papers and everything was downhill after that.  He became highly upset, the police were called, he barricaded himself in their little house where they brought their two babies home and sometime early this morning, depression, cynicism and anxiety ate all his hope up.   Thank God the wife and children were not in the house when he killed himself.  
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They say suicide is a scar that doesn't heal. It removes one person's pain, but for survivors, grief, guilt and utter sadness linger. In the wake of a loved one’s death by suicide, families often disintegrate, unable to deal with the intense grief and the difficult, painful, and often unanswerable question of “Why?” For every suicide, it is estimated that at least six persons are affected. These include family members, co-workers, neighbors, classmates and close friends. 

I come asking you to pray for Lee's wife, Amber and their two children, my brother and his wife, (Larry and Ann). For the brothers and sister and the rest of our family as we love on each other during this difficult time.  


Thank you prayer warriors. How comforting it is to know people will be praying.