What about suicide? .............. Parables 291

October 29, 1991

Statistics say one third of 7th grade northern natives have thought of committing suicide. The national average is supposed to be 23%. My kids tell me “everyone” thinks about suicide.

One author says taking your own life is the ultimate “God-playing.” In other words, he thinks there is no greater way to usurp the authority of God over our lives than to determine the time and method of our death.

I can’t count the times I’ve struggled with thinking dying would be better than living. I’ve even thought of ways to accomplish it. Thank God, He supplied some thoughts that convinced me otherwise.

In those suicidal wars of the mind, God helped by reminding me of the source of those ideas, my spiritual enemy who, according to Jesus, “... is a murderer from the beginning... a thief who comes to steal, to kill, to destroy.” This enemy promotes suicide because it suits his purposes.

Another help was a fuller understanding of God’s purposes. Jesus says of Himself, “I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.” Clearly, the suggestion of suicide is against Christ’s purposes and is not part of God’s plan for me.

When I’ve thought about suicide, I was always when under great stress; my problems were overwhelming. God may promise to unravel the mess, but under severe burdens, suicide can seem easier. Thoughts like: “Following God’s way will only make me more miserable,” and “Death would be a release from the pain of trying to live an impossibly restricted life” are no encouragement.

Satan (remember, he seeks to deceive and destroy) told Adam’s wife Eve that God didn’t want the best for her and she believed that lie. Notice, it is the same one he uses on me and on you too. Without firmly knowing the richness of God’s love and forgiveness, this lie will draw us away from God and maybe even into committing suicide.

Suicide involves several lies. Satan wants us to think that death is just the end of life, a wonderful release from our trials, the end of our misery. He wants the truth about death hidden and mysterious so we can be duped into taking both it and life into our own hands. He knows if we understand death and eternity, we just might turn to God, something he does not want anyone to do.

God puts a window in that black and mysterious doorway called death. Through His window, we get glimpses of eternity, not much but enough to discover that death’s door is entered but once. Judgment is next. We also see that for some, eternity is more black and darker than death, a place of “weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.” This side of eternity is Satan’s destination, prepared for him and his demons, out of the presence of God.

Through the window, we also see the other side of eternity, the side where the glory cannot begin to be described, where Jesus Christ shines so brightly the sun and moon are no longer necessary. He calls it heaven.

God’s window makes the issue of suicide plain too. We are never encouraged to take our own life but to put our life in His hands and allow the promise of eternal glory and the power of God’s Spirit to give us endurance for our temporary trials here. God’s rival, the liar and deceiver, knows what we could have if we trust God for living, and for dying, so he covers the window and substitutes his version of both.

Suicide is not an escape from life but robs people of the best that life can be. With God, no problem is unsolvable, no trial more than He can handle. But we have to trust Him and do it His way, not take matters into our own hands and discover we have handed ourselves over to the enemy.