Good morning…
My daughter said, “Mom, you have to read the article I just sent you. It’s about the boy I know from Ole Miss who took his life.” Opening her email, I read these heartbreaking words from the Clarion-Ledger newspaper article.
“Rivers sent a text moments before pulling the trigger. He wrote: ‘Mom, I love you, and I hate to do this to you. I’m so sorry I failed you and embarrassed our family. I just can’t do this anymore.’
Lauren read it immediately. She called him. No answer. She texted him: ‘Mama is on her way. If you’re trying, you’re not failing. No matter what is happening, it’s OK. I love you.’ She sent the same text again and again without a response.
By the time she was halfway to Oxford, his death was all over social media. Lauren hadn’t seen it, though she began receiving texts saying ‘We love you’ and ‘We are so sorry.’
‘I thought, “He’s in the hospital. I’ll get him, take him to (University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson) and he’ll be OK,”’ she says. A friend phoned Lauren about the time she was passing through Grenada, an hour from Oxford. ‘Lauren, will you pull over?’
‘No, I’m going to be with my son. He needs me.’
‘Lauren, I need you to pull over.’
‘Don’t tell me my son is already dead.’
‘Lauren, don’t make me say it.’
In the days following Rivers’ suicide, Lauren’s phone was flooded with voice messages and texts from other parents who had lost children to addiction. The common theme of the messages: ‘We will do anything to help you.’
‘I appreciate them all. And I know they are still hurting,’ Lauren says. ‘But there is nothing anyone can say that will bring my son back. And that’s just the way it is. His light burned so bright, he was so beautiful, he touched so many people. I’ve heard from so many of his friends. They all call him “my best friend.” But my son is in the ground, and I would be on my knees wanting to die right now if I thought I couldn’t make a difference.'”
For the sake of those hurting like Rivers, like Lauren, like their family and friends, Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!” (Matthew 9:35-38, MSG).
Join me in praying for Rivers’ grieving family and friends this holiday season. LORD, please use our hearts and our hands in your healing harvest.
…Sue…
