Where a Tree Falls, There They Lie

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Lying about the dead to give comfort to the living is not our job. There’s a certain Pastoral PTSD that afflicts many ministers that’s hard for laymen to really understand. Mine developed one evening about 11PM when an associate pastor called and said, “[Redacted] shot himself with his deer rifle. I’ll pick you up in five minutes.” WE DON’T KNOW IF HE’S DEAD OR ALIVE Five minutes later, and I was in a pickup truck headed toward a congregant’s house who I had only met a few times before. It was only weeks within the beginning of my pastorate...