When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

19 March 2006

For loved ones, in troubled times

We got some bad news this afternoon.

A young man in our family--a man in his twenties, though he is someone I will always think of as perpetually seven years old and in short pants, I guess--lost a fight with the personal demons he's been wrestling with for too many years.

He died, almost certainly from an unintentional drug overdose.

It was his mother--my cousin--that found him.

I don't talk about religion much on the blog. I regard it as an intensely personal matter, and it's not something I care to share with everybody in the world.

But for my loved ones, today, the only solace I can offer, other than my own thoughts and prayers, is Scriptural.
Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

And, even more crucially, a reminder and a promise that in suffering, you are never alone:
Isaiah 43:2: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

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