Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Suicide

Did you ever think about committing suicide? Pulling that trigger? Popping those pills? Cutting that vein? Writing that letter? If you have begun to plan your own demise, experts say that is a major problem and warn you to seek immediate help.

But did you ever think that the world would be better off without you? That all you cause is pain? That at least if you were gone, the people who are so disappointed with you could finally move on? If you have had these kinds of desperate thoughts, you are not alone. I have thought this, and I don’t know anyone who has honestly never thought along these lines. Even though it is common it is not true. You have to understand that the world is not better off without you, you are not here just to cause pain, and not everyone is disappointed in you.

Most of us have heard at some point or other that within each human heart there is a God-shaped hole that can only be filled by Him. As the song says,
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

But did you ever think that the reverse is also true? It is. There is a you-shaped hole in God’s heart that can only be filled by you. Let that sink in. If you are missing, then part of God’s glory can never be expressed, not by your rival, friend, teacher, student, mother, father, sister, brother, or even your twin.

The truth is that you were not created by God for destruction, but in fact you were created by God so that He could rescue you from your desperate situation, take away your black heart, give you a brand new one, take up residence inside it, and then through you enter into His world again bringing new life and hope to maybe just one person, maybe a nation.

And when you feel like you’d be better off dead you’re right in a sense. Jesus does want us to “die.” He wants us all to “die” to worrying about our own life so that we can make room to take from him his very own life. His offer is to trade us our life for His.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)

What He wants us to do is quit trying to preserve our creature comforts and promote ourselves—just let all that go and trade up for the only life Jesus can give. He would have us to give up on everything we could possibly do to preserve our life, and just depend on God to come through for us. He said it this way:

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

You may not think there is any way out of the pit you’re in right now. You may think you're worth more dead than alive. You may feel like you have absolutely nothing to offer. It may feel like the whole world stopping and spinning backward couldn’t undo the mess you’ve made or the crap you’re in. It may seem that no matter what you do or say or become couldn’t redeem your life. But it’s all a mirage. Those thoughts, those feelings, that scenario is a brilliantly conceived illusion to blind you to the truth that God loves you and has a way to make this world better in some way that can only happen through you. It may not be this week, this month, this year, or even this decade, but if you will hold on and hold out for it, you will live to see the beauty and the strength that He meant when He meant you.

Never give up on God. He will never give up on you.

1 comment:

MJ said...

Thank you for writing this. I have a good friend that tried to kill himself twice this month. I am going to have him read this next time he is over.

This song is resonating with me. It's in my heart and has found my voice. I admit to being a Christina Perry fan. I've been known to...