Suicide

I don't know how I missed this tread until now, but I will comment. I agree with a lot of what has been said here.

1. Try to protect the family as best you can.

2. The act of suicide has no bearing upon where you spend eternity. If you are saved you will go to heaven. If you aren't then won't be in Heaven.

Exactly right brother. A person who commits suicide has died of a disease just as if they had a heart attack.

I agree it is a selfish act, but perhaps not as selfish as it first appears. At a NAMI meeting once I heard a man who suffered from depression tell how being suicidal was to him. His example was that if someone was physically beating you everyday then everyone would think you would be CRAZY to stay and take it everyday. The rational thing to do would be to escape.

Well to a mentally ill person it is like having someone in your own head who is abusing you every day. Since the abuser is your own mind they only way to escape is suicide. I don't necessarily agree with this 100% but it is an interesting perspective in what it is like to be suicidal.

We must not pass judgment on anyone who commits or attempts to commit suicide. We do not know what it is like for them.


Bill

 

A man in the church that I pastored from 96 to 02 was an active member and cleaned up the church every week for years. He called his niece about 3 weeks ago and asked her if she would clean the church for him the following week. A couple of days later he went to clean the church like he always did, then went home and got a pistol. He stepped out on the front porch, placed it to his chest and pulled the trigger. His wife was in the house and thought a limb had cracked. When she went out on the porch she tried to help him hang on until help arrived, but he died. When I spoke with her I held her and asked about her welfare and if someone was staying with her. I didn't say anything about the death other than to say we visited his gravesite and will miss him.

 

There are never the right words to deal with some situations. Yes, you can comfort with scripture which is part of its design but often the one being comforted will question God (like Job). Death and particularly the death of a child or suicide fall into this catagory. I almost find it not fair for a parent to burry their child.

I do believe there is a season for everything and it's important to mourn during mourning time or you will carry that grief the rest of your days. Everyone appreciates another to help carry a burden and these are the lasting memories from an almost surreal moment of time. Now is the time to be a friend.

 

I would like to comment specifically on myth 5

A therapist once told someone I know that if you want to screw up your kids lives then all you need to do is kill yourself. I know for a fact this is an accurate statement from the therapist because I was present when it was said.
At first that seems like a pretty harsh statement to someone who had recently been suicidal, but the person in question had said that one reason they didn't follow through was their children. So the therapist was reinforcing the fact that it would not be good for the children.


Bill

 

He might enjoy knowing the message was well received. Often the preacher has to say what everyone is thinking but no one else will say.

We had a young man commit suicide some years ago. I toiled all night with my message, "crying on the inside". I talked about how society has created this myth that men are not supposed to cry so they are left to deal with painful issues by themselves (within).

His father caught my drift and hated me after the service. He even stopped coming to the Church. About 6 months later he came to me after service and said I was right. His son needed a shoulder to lean on but his dad kept telling him to buck up. I didn't know of this situation but the Lord gave me that message. That hug from his dad sure felt good even though it was 6 months later.

I'm sure that pastor would welcome a word from ya...

 

I had a friend that had a son that commited suicide. He asked me if he was in hell for doing that and I said I did not know and that I had to study on it . I gave him some scripture. Ga 5:21 Envyings, MURDERS, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Then I told him to look the word suicide up in the dictionary. I looked it up and it means self murder. He was mean to me ever sence. I ever gave him what God gave me. I study heard on it to.