SUICIDE AND MEANING

 

 

Suicide had become epidemic in the States, even before COVID-19:

 

·       The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released startling new statistics on the rise of deaths by suicide in the United States, which are up 25 percent since 1999 across most ethnic and age groups. These numbers clearly point to a crisis — but of what kind? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/opinion/sunday/suicide-rate-existential-crisis.html

 

Behavioral scientist, Clay Routledge, dismantles the common assertion that we have improved as psychotherapy has become more available. However, Routledge correctly observes that, at this time of the greatest availability of therapy, suicide continues on its deadly march.

 

He then identifies a key factor in understanding the phenomenon of suicide:

 

·       As a behavioral scientist who studies basic psychological needs, including the need for meaning, I am convinced that our nation’s suicide crisis is in part a crisis of meaninglessness.

 

We express our quest for meaning in many ways - “Finding myself,” “Finding my inner truth,” or “What fulfills me.” Routledge reasons that this quest is a demanding and persistent human need:

 

·       Empirical studies bear this out. A felt lack of meaning in one’s life has been linked to alcohol and drug abuse, depression, anxiety and — yes — suicide. And when people experience loss, stress or trauma, it is those who believe that their lives have a purpose who are best able to cope…

 

Some insist that we can simply create such a belief. However, when our belief fails to align with reality, there is a price to pay. Consider the person who makes-believe that he has a wonderful marriage but is not married at all. His world of make-believe might give him a sense of purpose for a while, but eventually he will pay a price for it.

 

Secularism denies the existence of objective meaning and morality. According to sociologist David Karp:

 

·       Cosmopolitan medicine banishes that knowledge [of the necessary purpose for suffering] by insisting that suffering is without meaning and unnecessary… [Suffering is] secularized as mechanical mishaps, and so stripped of their stories, the spiritual ramifications and missing pieces of history that make meaning." (Speaking of Sadness, pg. 191)

 

When my purpose had been driven by the need to excel all others, I would become tormented when I failed to succeed. Instead, a sustaining and fulfilling purpose cannot be performance-based but based upon an ideal beyond ourselves. Besides, real meaning is only possible if there is a Truth that transcends our fleeting feelings, thoughts, needs, and evolving decisions, a Truth that is only possible if there is a unchanging, all-loving, and all-wise God, the necessary foundation for meaning. With this meaning, there is purpose, focus, and delight. About the Messiah, a descendant of King David, Isaiah wrote:

 

·       And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. (Isaiah 11:3)

 

For Jesus, serving the Father was His nourishment:

·       Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. (John 4:34)

 

His delight was to put the will and the Word of His Father above all else. The delight of waking up knowing that we serve our great and loving infuses our lives with meaning, purpose, and confidence. The late German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, proclaimed that if our lives are embedded in meaning and purpose, (a “why”), we can bear life’s hardships (a “what”). This is especially true if our meaning is derived from Truth, a solid foundation, which can support our purposes.

 

Overwhelmed by life, I need to remind myself, many times in the day, that I am beloved and sustained by my Savior Jesus. Nothing can empower me as can this simple belief.