Suicide – a time for introspection

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Dear editor, 

The recent high-profile suicides of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade seem confusing. On the outside, successful careers, plenty of money, fame and yet on the inside something overwhelmingly hopeless. So, what is it that is on the inside?

On the inside, we have hopes, dreams, expectations, perceptions, observations, thoughts, feelings, emotions like fear and rage, even souls and spirits. One of those inside characters or characteristics apparently gets way out of whack in its perception of ‘the world they live in.’ So somehow one or more of the whacked out inner characteristics can set off an inner trigger or inner switch that says, "You’ve got to get out of here," and suicide is the quickest way to get out.

Now, the whole list above about the inside, for me, is controlled mostly by my religious perceptions. So, as a more mature Christian, my first thoughts when I come to a personal stop, because of some quandary of hopelessness, would be to introspect like this:

  1. Why should I feel hopeless about anything, if I’m really a Christian?
  2. I remember that Jesus has a plan for my life and it’s a good plan.
  3. I remember that God is smarter than me (or I’m dumber than Him) but He just hasn’t yet chosen to share with me all the reasons for my current predicament.
  4. So, His charge to me is for me to LET GO of my hopelessness to Him
  5. Then, I pray for His answer as to why I’m going through this experience
  6. I prepare for His answer [ask & you shall receive] and I get prepared to figure out how to use His feedback that I know I will receive.
  7. Praise the Lord and onward we go again.

Suicide, first, with no introspection and patience, to me, would be like telling the Lord he’s a liar and not trusting what He says. He says He will not give me any burden to carry that is too heavy. OK, so I’ll believe Him and trust Him! I could go through a whole laundry list of how He has watched over me over the years. Sometimes we don’t notice His role, though, until we look back over the years. 

I don’t think suicide is a path to Christian Heaven. So, I’d recommend becoming a Christian, or a better Christian and practice leaning on God to defeat hopelessness and help prevent suicide.

JIM MOORE

Pace

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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Suicide – a time for introspection