A Life Interrupted

“A Life Interrupted”

While enjoying our week of R & R at the beach, and while our children are enjoying being with one another, some playing in a baseball tournament, others just hanging out with their buds from back home (many from our school in Nashville~ Christ Presbyterian Academy~ come stay at locations very close in proximity in Destin, Fl., so our children can be together), we received devastating news. One of our friends/students, John “Shep” Case, took his own life. A sophomore at CPA, Shep has been with our school for a year. He was a football player, an excellent student, and a personable young man that seemed to love life and people. We don’t know details, other than the funeral will be taking place tomorrow, while many are still out of town. Details don’t matter; what DOES matter is that Shep’s life was interrupted, and his family is completely broken, as are his friends who now have to pick up the pieces and go on with our own lives. There are no words to say that will comfort…or explain…or fill the void. God can, and will, do that with time, and for that we rejoice. The school will have counselors on hand next Monday morning to work with our students from a Christian perspective on how to begin processing this information. For that, we are extremely grateful. Meanwhile, we parents are trying to find the appropriate words, not to explain the ‘why’; rather to explain the ‘how’ we go on from here.



I want to try and use this time to help my son, Benjamin, understand how precious life is. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem (my sister said that, and I thought it was so profound and true)! Life will be full of trials and rocky rough roads for each of us. The Bible even warns us of that: "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." ~ John 16:33 Then it goes back again to my 2 favorite words in all the Word: “But God…” He has overcome the world! HE is our source of strength when we feel we cannot go on another moment; HE is our peace when we are in total turmoil; HE is the One who will carry us all the way through and be the constant in our lives. And He desperately wants us to bring everything to Him, down to the most minute detail, and trust Him with all of it, whether we can see a way out or not. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ~ Matt. 11:28

Yet I know that right now these words probably don’t mean much to many going through the agony of the reality of his death. That’s OK! God can handle the ‘not understanding’, He can take the questions, and HE understands that WE DON’T understand. 2 Cor. 12:10 says: “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” We are weak humans, on a journey of becoming more and more like Christ as we go; yet, we still have the human component that is weak in trying times like this.

Right now, Benjamin and 3 of his buddies are laying across his bed in our rental condo on facebook, looking at the memorial site for Shep (if you are interested in visiting it and you have a facebook account, the address is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83547411208#/group.php?. I know this is part of their processing it all, and that’s wonderful. They are holding one another up; they are nurturing one another by loving in the way guys do; they are questioning, they are struggling, they are reminiscing about being in class with him, they are curious about how things will be when they return to school; they are going through the grief process, and it’s good!

Please pray for Mark and Polly Case and for Shep’s brother, as they face visitation tonight and a memorial service in the morning. Please add them to any prayer lists you are a part of, for daily strength to endure and to carry on life without their precious Shep. And please pray for all of the CPA students, for the faculty and staff and counselors as they assist our children through the grief process; and for us, as parents, as we love our children well and make ourselves available in whatever way we are needed.

Thank-you and blessings on each of you,

Lisa (aka “Lolli”)