SUICIDE, DEPRESSION: ADDRESSING LIFE’S PROBLEMS

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology has analyzed and compiled more than a decade of data from the National Survey on Drugs and Health, a large representative survey of 600,000 adults and adolescents administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Journal published its findings March 14, 2019:

·       The researchers found rates of depression and serious psychological distress as well as suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts, and deaths by suicides have all increased since the mid-2000s. They also found the increases were primarily driven by adolescents and young adults ages 25 and younger, with a more pronounced increase among girls.

·       Major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, from 7 percent to 15 percent, from 2009 to 2015. In a similar time frame, depression among 16- to 17-year-olds increased by 69 percent, and serious psychological distress among 18- to 25-year-olds jumped by 71 percent. Twice as many 22- to 23-year-olds attempted suicide in 2017 compared to 2008. By 2017, 1 in 5 teens ages 12 to 17 had experienced major depression in the previous year. https://world.wng.org/content/teens_in_crisis

The extent and consistency of these findings should sound an alarm that something is terribly wrong, but how do we explain it so that we can address the problem? Many explanations have been offered, but there is little agreement. Here are some of the suggestions along with their drawbacks:

·       A Troubled Economy with Diminished Job Prospects – However, the economy has been improving.

·       Substance Abuse – However, among adolescents and teens, there has been a steady decrease.

·       Academic Pressure – However, teens are spending less time with their homework than in the 1900s.

·       Greater Likelihood to Express Mental Health Concerns – However, suicides have also correspondingly increased during this same period.

·       Electronic Devices, Social Media, and Direct Social Isolation – While there is a correlation between these and depression, the question remains, “What is causing this correlation. Are teens resorting to indirect forms of communication because of underlying problems?”

However, there is another factor closely correlated with the escalating rates of depression and suicide – the rejection of Christianity. As the percentage of atheism, alternative lifestyles, sexual confusion, and the “nones” has risen, so too has these maladies.

While much of society rejects this equation, many have confidently testified that Jesus has changed their lives. Can we explain this change in a psychological and natural way as opposed to invoking the supernatural? I think that, to some degree, we can. Think about the impact of these beliefs:

·       If we know that we are beloved by the Source of all truth, morality, and meaning, we will not be so fearful about peer acceptance. Consequently, we will be able to engage more confidently. We can also be transparent.

·       If we know that we are forgiven of all of our sins and moral failures, are freed from incredible psychological burdens that weigh us down. We also do not need to prove ourselves worthy or to engage in self-harm, knowing that Jesus has already paid the price for our sins.

·       If we are convinced that a blissful eternity awaits us, we need not be weighed down by our less than optimal circumstances, jealousies, and resentments.

·       We need not be unforgiving or resentful of those who hurt us, because we know that God is just, and He will avenge. Therefore, we are privileged to be able to love our enemies.

·       We need not be consumed with our weaknesses, because we know that God’s strengths are greater than our weaknesses and failure.

All of this knowledge is very freeing as Jesus had promised: “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, NLT2)

However, many do not remain faithful to His teachings. Instead of continuing with Jesus, they allow themselves to be carried away by the temptations for immediate gratification, peer approval, impatience, or by persecutions (Matthew 13).

I FAIL JESUS EVERY DAY

I think that if we see ourselves accurately, all of us can say that same thing: “I fail Jesus every day.” While this can be discouraging, if we commit our discouragement to Jesus, it can also be a source of growth, encouragement, and gratefulness.

GROWTH? Yes! We need to be humbled before the Lord will lift us up, and failure is a great teacher of humility. Jesus told a parable about two men who entered the Temple to pray. The Pharisee was convinced of his own righteousness and moral superiority and looked down on others. The other person understood that he was a spiritual failure who didn’t deserve anything good from the Lord. He could only pray, “Lord, have mercy upon me, as sinner.” Jesus then concluded:

·       “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [forgiven], rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14 ESV)

Why does our Lord exalt the humble and not the proud? If the proud were to be exalted, they would become even more convinced of their superiority and moral sufficiency without the grace of God. Meanwhile, the humble and broken realize that they have only God to place their hopes in. When they are blessed, they are more likely to give the credit to the One who deserves it (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Humility is the only fertile soil in which God’s seed grows. It is the soil that depends upon God and His ever-transforming Word.

ENCOURAGEMENT? It is our failures and suffering that cause us to look to God and to find God’s peace and encouragement. It is through the tears of our ever-present inadequacies that we look for our adequacy elsewhere. If our failures lead us to seek the comforts and reassurances of God, they are good and necessary. Scripture assures us that we will always have needs, but God is sufficient to address each one of them:

·       When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. (Psalm 34:17-19)

Why did God design things this was? It is only in the midst of our discomfort that we can appreciate God’s comfort. It is only through our destitution that we can appreciate His deliverances. Consequently, it is through our insufficiency that we discover the sufficiency of God:

·       But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Paul was understanding that his strength came from God alone, the necessary foundation for humility. In order to understand this, think of the Prodigal Son. After he had received his inheritance from his father, he left him to seek his joys. However, after he had spent his money and was compelled to compete with the hogs for his food – a futile task – he returned home to his father, the only hope that was left to him. There, he was received with a great celebration. Whenever we return to God in our brokenness, I think that there is a great heavenly celebration. Our Lord is that father who is always awaiting our return (Luke 15:7-24).

GRATEFULNESS? We are not grateful when we receive our paycheck. Instead, we regard it is our due. However, the paycheck does not reflect our relationship with God. He blesses us because He loves us not because we have earned it. In fact, we cannot earn anything from God:

·       Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. (Job 41:11; Romans 11:35)

The Prodigal didn’t show any gratefulness when he left home with his father’s inheritance. However, when he returned, his suffering had disposed him to his father’s mercy. Before, he had taken his inheritance as his right. Understandably, he showed no gratefulness. However, upon his return, he sorrowfully proclaimed to his father, “I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:21). At this point, his father perceived that his son was ready to receive a glorious celebration.

We are not worthy of anything from our Lord (Luke 17:10), just His wrath (Romans 6:23). Scripture doesn’t explicitly tell us that the son was grateful. It doesn’t need to. Instead, we know that when we receive God’s complete embrace, instead of His wrath, we are melted by His undeserved love.

A disgraced woman had the audacity to enter a Pharisee’s house and to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears. The Pharisees were shocked that He would even allow such a filthy person to touch Him. However, Jesus explained:

·       “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” (Luke 7:47 NLT2)

Moral failures can lead to “much love” when we know that we are forgiven, totally. Our Lord is able to turn our failures into victories. Consequently, we need to regard our moral failures as a potential positive rather than a negative.

Paul had learned a corresponding truth. When God doesn’t give us what we want – a healing in Paul’s case – it didn’t mean that God was displeased with Paul but that He wanted to give him something better, the gift of weakness and neediness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Our Savior also gives us the gift of failure and suffering so that we would learn to adore Him for who He is. (BTW, this is a truth that only those who love the Lord can receive.)

LOOKING INTO THE MIND OF GOD

The vast percentage of scientists have abandoned the Steady State Theory, which claims that the universe had always existed, in favor of Big Bang cosmology, claiming that the universe had a beginning. This has created a big problem for the materialist, who now has to explain how it came to be if nothing existed prior to it.

The late physicist, Stephen Hawking, had claimed that gravity did it:

·       Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

There are several problems with this “solution”:

1.    What created gravity?

2.    How could gravity exist apart from time, space, and matter in which gravity is embedded?

3.    Gravity doesn’t create matter or even the other laws of science, let alone the universe.

4.    Even now, we do not observe gravity creating anything out of nothing.

5.    What accounts for its elegance and immutability? It gives the appearance of design.

Many regard these challenges as a series of knockout blows and have appealed to Quantum theory to explain the origin of the universe. Casey Luskin and Gary and Hailie Kemper (LKK) claim that Quantum theory:

·       Describes matter and energy in terms of subatomic units called “quanta.” According to the theory, quantum events take place in a quantum vacuum where waves and particles seem to pop in and out of existence randomly, without any apparent physical cause. (Salvo, Spring 2019, 36)

As yet, there is no “physical explanation for the origin of quanta.” However, this doesn’t mean that there is no explanation. LKK explain:

·       Quantum theory predicts that quantum events will occur within a range of well-defined statistical probabilities—a highly ordered set of circumstances, which is unlikely if there is no underlying cause. This suggests that there is a cause for quanta, but that the cause is not physical. (36)

According to LKK, this suggests that:

·       Some events may originate from causes outside the physical universe—countering the philosophy of materialism. (36)

Besides, this appeal to quantum events suffers from the same flaws as does the appeal to gravity. For one thing, the breeding ground of the quanta, the quantum vacuum, “is not nothing but a sea of fluctuating energy endowed with a rich structure and subject to physical laws.” LKK reason:

·       If the universe arose in the same way quanta do, materialists should realize that the quanta may be best explained by a non-physical [transcendent] cause.  In the same way, the beginning of the universe some 13 billion years ago also requires an explanation outside of the universe. (36)

We cannot appeal to the universe (gravity or quanta) to explain the origin of the universe. Instead, we have to look to a sufficient cause outside the universe, one that doesn’t require time, space, and matter.

Perhaps, this is why cosmologist and Nobel Prize recipient for his work in support of the Big Bang, George Smoot, concluded:

·       What we have found is evidence for the birth of the universe…[I]t is like looking at God. (35)

The very One who the materialist cannot bear to behold!

SELF-PITY

Self-pity is a common problem. While it has an immediate payoff – self-righteous anger and an entitling victimhood identity – it is almost universally recognized as self-destructive. New Age pundit Eckhart Tolle recognizes this truth:

·       Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

Writer Martha Beck also commented:

·       As I obsess about my ancient problems, I feel more like I'm sinking in quicksand than lighting a torch. I'm creating neither heat nor light, just the icky, perversely pleasurable squish of self-pity between my toes. My only defense is that I'm not the only one down here in the muck - our whole culture is doting on tales of personal tragedy.

This is hardly a defense. Even if self-pity is universal, it is still a poison to be avoided. However, it can be deeply entrenched. Writer Joyce Meyer warns that helping those imprisoned by self-pity might even be counter-productive and enabling:

·       If someone decides they're not going to be happy, it's not your problem. You don't have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

How do we play into their self-pity? By giving the suffering what they want – more pity – rather than what they need! What do they need? Ultimately, it is an eternal hope!

However, I would recommend that we start by entering into their suffering, showing them that we are willing to be there with them, listening and caring. However, they also have to be willing to accept the doctor’s medicine. If not, there is little that the doctor can do, and he has to explain this firmly to his patient.

What is the medicine that we must administer to the sufferer? The counsel of the Scriptures! Firstly, that we all suffer:

·       No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (1 Corinthians 10:13-14 ESV)

Even though our Lord will rescue us, we still have a role to play. We have to flee from idolatry and sin. Self-pity is a sin. It is a denial that our Lord is in charge and is working everything together for our good (Romans 8:28), even suffering:

·       And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives”…For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5-6, 11)

Trials and suffering are actually good things. By the Holy Spirit, they mold us into what He wants us to be. Therefore, we are

·       persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:9-11)

No pain, no gain. To wallow in self-pity is to deny the Biblical revelation of God’s purposes. It is to deny God’s promises to us:

·       …For all things are yours, whether…world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Col. 2:8-10)

We are already indescribably wealthy and privileged. To hold to self-pity denies these truths. However, it is one thing to be tempted to feel sorry for ourselves, which all of us are, but it’s another to embrace self-pity. Most importantly, our blessings extend into all eternity:

·       He [our Savior] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Therefore, we have a compelling reason to endure the sufferings that this life throws at us. Jesus established the pattern for us when He endured His own suffering:

·       …let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Jesus endured by looking to His future joy. We must do the same. We all are tempted to dwell upon our problems, pains, weaknesses, and failings. However, we are to take them to the Lord and to leave them with Him:

·       Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:6-8)

When we indulge in self-pity, we are being devoured by the devil. Instead, we cannot carry such a burden; nor did God intend us to carry them. Instead, He encourages us to cast our cares upon Him.

A person who refuses to embrace these truths insists on carrying these burdens to their own destruction. Therefore, there is little else we can do. There is a time to quit and to move on.