Suicide

For several days now it's been on my heart to write about suicide so it didn't surprise me when I learned that September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.  It's not the easiest thing to write or read about.  I don't know if you have ever been affected by a love one taking there own life but if you have, I am so sorry.  Unfortunately, I know all too well the pain that is left after a loved one takes their own life.

When I was a teenager, I had two friends commit suicide five months apart.  Years later, my mom's last boyfriend committed suicide.  A couple years after that, a child hood friend committed suicide as well.  This year alone, I have had one church friend & two family members commit suicide.

No death is easy to process but death by suicide is even more difficult for many reasons.  It's hard because of the why's & why not's that are left unanswered.  It's hard because of the guilt you may be feeling or have felt, that you should have known that the person was crying out for help or even worse, that you may have said or done something to "push them over the edge" & caused them to do it.  The thoughts & unanswered questions can be so overwhelming that you yourself go on a downward spiral.

And if that isn't enough...most people touched by suicide have to deal for themselves or from others, the question, "Do people who commit suicide go to heaven?"    I am amazed by people who very admantly believe & say "that no one who commits suicide goes to heaven".  I honestly don't understand how they can say that.  The Bible doesn't say that.  They then justify their answer that they don't go to heaven because taking your own life is a sin & they are sinning & then dying without confessing & repenting of their sin.

I don't know about you but I know there are times when I sin & haven't confessed & repented of the sin but I don't die.  What happens if the day comes & I'm in that situation & I do die?  Are you saying that as a believer I'm not going to heaven because I sinned but didn't confess & repent before I died in a car wreck or whatever the situation was?  I don't believe that is Biblical.

If you are struggling with this, or with any aspect of suicide, I encourage you to watch the webcast that my senior pastor did on the subject.  You can go to www.redeemerchurch.org & click onto webcasts, then click on Pastor Tom, & then Suicide.

For those of you who are struggling with the death of a loved one by suicide or are contemplating suicide yourself, I beg you to get help.  Please tell some one.  Do not listen to the lies of the enemy that whisper into your ears that, "no one cares", "it's hopeless", "you're worthless."  They are lies...straight from the pit of hell! 

God says, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one & only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16
"I praise you because I am fearfully & wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  Psalm 139:14-16

The following is a song written on a true story of a man that was about to kill himself & then he heard a Third Day song on the radio that gave him hope & he ended up not doing it.  I hope this song gives you hope.