1613 It’s Off the Table

What could cause a life to seem no longer worth living? What could cause a miraculous creation to decide one more day just isn’t possible?

It would be so easy to dismiss ourselves from this conversation, assuming our families are immune from that darkness. It would never happen to us. We’re too happy, too blessed, too close. But let me assure you, none of us are dismissed from this battle, and it is a battle.

Suicide. There, I said it. Taking your own life to end the pain, to avoid another day, to escape a reality that feels impossible to continue. And let me assure you, no matter how happy you are, no matter how good you know your life to be, there are circumstances that could bring you to this darkness. Maybe you’ve felt the touch of that darkness before, or maybe you haven’t. But I assure you, it is there.

It is there for you, and it is there for your family. And here’s the bad news, you can’t insulate your family from ever facing those pains that would cause this hopelessness. Yes, it happens to the good kids. Yes, it happens to the ones who go to Church every week. Yes, it happens to the families in the big houses with all the fancy toys. Yes, it happens to the families with good marriages and dinners around the table. Yes, it happens to college degrees, successful careers, and beauty queens.

Yes, freaking beauty queens with a crown on the perfect body, a high rise apartment in New York, and everything a girl could ever dream of. Then there is darkness and hopelessness that makes a beautiful soul like that feel life is no longer worth living.

We can’t make that darkness go away. We can’t dish out hope that will guarantee you to never feel the feelings of hopelessness. But maybe there’s something we can do to take away the tool the enemy uses in that darkness. Maybe we can fight the battle by cancelling the very thing that would be used against us in our weakest moment.

What if suicide were just taken off the table? Seriously, what if it were no longer a viable option? What if a promise was made to NEVER, EVER, regardless of circumstances, end your own life.

Why? Why make that promise when the reality is there may come a day when you feel like you can’t continue? Here’s why you make that promise now … for any and every person who loves you. What you may not understand is the complete devastation your willful exit would create for everyone who loves you. The questions, the guilt, the grief is nearly unbearable. You need to know that, and you need to understand you can keep that from ever touching them.

How? Decide now, suicide will NEVER be an option for you. Ever. It’s not on the table.

I know the questions after someone you love ends their own life. I know the guilt and the grief. I’ve seen it take it’s toll in families, and I’ve seen it’s gruesome work in my own family. My husband lost his own father to suicide. He was a good man, eaten away by regret, who one night decided everyone would be better off without him, and he took a bottle of pills never to wake up again. While he never woke up, let me tell you, his family wakes up every day to the nightmare left behind. That is not a pain he would have ever wanted to create for his sons.

Sometimes we will do for others what we won’t do for ourselves. If you can’t live for yourself, then honey live for anyone who loves you.

This is not a pain you would ever want to create for the people who love you. Decide now, SUICIDE WILL NEVER BE AN OUT FOR YOU. IT’S NO LONGER ON THE TABLE.

Scripture says in 1 Peter 5:8 “Stay alert!