When I was in Tucson a year ago, I posted about a prayer request made at the end of a service I attended there. The question and prayer was over the sister of one of the parishioners whom was terminal and they did not want her to suffer – so could we pray for their expedited death!
The pastor commented that perhaps the most compassionate response we have in terminal situations was to pray for God to shorten their pain by taking them home quickly.
I was wary of this, as human live is precious to the God I know. Yes, we are broken, we do die, but life is what God has given us and He alone determines our days.
To the pastor’s credit he was running a suicide prevention program in the community and I thought, “Well, if he is working for life, maybe he is believing life is in God’s hand….”
I was stunned to read on the internet he committed suicide in November. And absolutely no reason has appeared in print yet.
How can you kill yourself when you are a pastor? How could you not have considered the impact of example you are setting? How could you not know better, having been running a suicide prevention program for years? For Pete’s Sake!!!!!
I am left wordless!
But, you know, there is a church full of people in Tucson hurting right now and he did have a family. You might want to lift them all up in prayer…
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