In writing this post today, I realize it’s not a comfortable subject. How could it be when the end result is loss of someone to needless death? Yet I feel there are those who need to read this. People who’ve lost a loved one to the horrendous crime.
The subject matter is harsh, sinful, and hard to talk about. But there is also a miraculous, glorious side. Please, let me explain.
Recently a friend of my daughter’s committed suicide. She was only 53 years old and left a husband and four children. In trying to make sense of the despicable act, I prayed God would give me words to comfort my daughter. Her loss impacted her like nothing else.
This woman had received the Lord in her life years ago. She was a born-again Christian and had sealed her allegiance to Jesus.
I don’t understand the impact of depression on a person, but it grips and holds many in its cruel, depraved jaws.
A verse from Romans 8 fortified me as I spoke to my child. The reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He did for us on the cross washed over me. Verse 35 asks the rhetorical question: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Then verse 37-39 says “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come not powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Though my daughter’s friend committed a horrible sin, it wasn’t out of God’s power to forgive one of his children. God’s authority is greater than anything we can think or do. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, she has victory.
I need to make clear these verses are not a license to do wrong. The Bible says “Do not test the Lord your God.”
Then I heard the words He spoke as she left the world, “Welcome to your eternal home, my daughter.”
Suicide affects us all in one way or another. Most everyone knows a loved one, friend or stranger who has left this earth by suicide. The after affects are heartbreaking. My husband and I have known too many people who felt suicide was their only choice. We pray for them and their loved ones.
I have never suffered from depression, thank the Lord. But it must be horrendous to make somebody want to take their own life.