SUICIDE AND HOPELESSNESS

Suicide has reached epidemic levels. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is now the 10^th leading cause of death in the US. In 2014, approximately 42,773 died of suicide and 25 times as many attempt suicide. That means approximately 100,000,000 Americans! They add:

·       In 2014, the highest suicide rate (19.3 out of 100,000 yearly) was among people 85 years or older. The second highest rate (19.2) occurred in those between 45 and 64 years of age. Younger groups have had consistently lower suicide rates than middle-aged and older adults. In 2014, adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24 had a suicide rate of 11.6. 

These rates have been rising steadily since 2000, especially among Whites (14.7 per 100,000, vs. Blacks – 5.5 in 2014).

What accounts for rise? Kelly Crace, VP of Health and Wellness at the College of William and Mary, offered a surprising assessment:

·       Suicides on college campuses move us toward myopic criticisms of stress and academic pressure. We want to blame the suicide on how stressed out or pressured a student was made to feel. But stress and academic pressure are not strong predictors of completed suicide attempts. What is a strong predictor is a complex mental health state that goes untreated. Stress and pressure can deteriorate someone’s well-being and can compound a complex mental health state but they in themselves are not the indications that someone will commit suicide. (Catherine Cook, Christian Research Journal, Vol. 39/Number 04, 60)

If stress is not the culprit, what is? It seems obvious that the problem is hopelessness. Victor Frankl, the late holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, perceptively wrote about the decline of his fellow inmates:

·       The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay.

When we despair of ourselves and our predicaments, we decline and sometimes decide to check-out.

What will make the difference? There are probably a lot of things that will address the despair: friends, social connections, confidants, and even our responsibility for others.

The late American novelist Norman Mailer also understood the need for our lives to have meaning and purpose:

·       “We are healthier if we think there is some importance in what we’re doing…When it seems like my life is meaningless, I feel closer to despair.”

It seems that Mailer realized that he could not merely create his own meaning. Instead, it has to be discovered within the fabric of objective reality.

Even worse, secularism slams the door on meaning, 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) 

In contrast to the secular sterility, the late Zen Buddhist, psychiatrist and author of The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck, introduced his readers to Zen spirituality. However, fifteen years later, he wrote Further along the Road Less Traveled to bring us up to date with his spiritual pilgrimage:

·       The quickest way for you to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.

The best medicine for despair is the knowledge that there is a good purpose for our pain and that, in the end, everything will work out for the best:

·       Now what better news can there be than we cannot lose, we are bound to win? We are guaranteed winners once we realize that everything that happens to us has been designed to teach us what we need to know on our journey.

How did Peck learn this lesson? He had observed his Christian patients, who had this confidence, consistently improve. Peck realized that a trust in a loving God had been the missing critical element. Consequently, he became a Christian.

When we understand that we belong to Christ (Galatians 2:20) and that He has such a love for us that He is working everything out for the good (Romans 8:28), we can rest back and leave the driving to Him.

A JOURNEY WITHOUT A DESTINATION WILL SOON GROW ARDUOUS

When we deny God, we also deny that life has a purpose. Therefore, we tend to want to discover our meaning – and everyone needs a meaning or a purpose in life – in the journey and not in the destination. Consequently, Os Guinness wrote:

·       To those who say, “The search itself is its own reward” or “Better to travel hopefully than to arrive,” followers of Christ see it differently. A journey is only meaningful if it has a destination. (The Journey, 218-219)

The late psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl, had observed that once the camp internee no longer had a destination in sight, he quickly despaired of the journey and deteriorated.

In The Outline of Sanity, G.K. Chesterton wrote:

·       Pioneers and empire builders were filled with hope and courage because…[they] were in search of something, and not merely in search of something. They consciously conceived an end of travel and not endless traveling… For it is a sin against reason to tell men that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive; and once they believe it, they travel hopefully no longer.

Life’s journey can be arduous and painful, perhaps inevitably so. It was for Jesus. Even He needed a goal or vision that took Him beyond the journey to His destination:

·       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 12:2-3)

We too need to look beyond the journey so that we do “not grow weary.”

TO REJECT GOD IS TO REJECT HOPE

When we reject and expel God from our lives, something else will inevitably fill the vacuum. Generally, the self is elevated to fill the gap with god-like abilities. We grant ourselves forgiveness, inappropriate self-trust, powers to create our purpose-for-living, and morality, even if only subjective. Our hope is in ourselves to stand against life’s threats. However, this hope and self-trust will not bear the test of time. Atheist and mathematician Bertrand Russell described in 1903 his insipient despair with his morally flat universe:

·       “That man is the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins- all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.”

·       "Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built."

         

In a letter to Lowes Dickinson, Russell wrote:

·       “We stand on the shores of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns.” (Bertrand Russell, Autobiography, p. 287 as quoted by Leroy Koopman, “Famous Atheists Give Their Testimonies,” Moody Monthly, Nov. 1975, p. 124.)

Consequently, there is a strong correlation between atheism and suicide. Pitzer College sociologist Phil Zuckerman reports:

·        “Concerning suicide rates, this is the one indicator of societal health in which religious nations fare much better than secular nations. According to the 2003 World Health Organization's report on international male suicides rates (which compared 100 countries), of the top ten nations with the highest male suicide rates, all but one (Sri Lanka) are strongly irreligious nations with high levels of atheism. It is interesting to note, however, that of the top remaining nine nations leading the world in male suicide rates, all are former Soviet/Communist nations, such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia. Of the bottom ten nations with the lowest male suicide rates, all are highly religious nations with statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism.” (Adherents.com)

In contrast to this, Dr. Stephen Joseph, University of Warwick, reported that:

·       "Religious people seem to have a greater purpose in life, which is why they are happier. Looking at the research evidence, it seems that those who celebrate the Christian meaning of Christmas are on the whole likely to be happier.” (Conservapedia)

Why is this so? The Late psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, wrote 15 years later about his journey from Zen Buddhism to Christianity. He had repeatedly observed that his Christian clients would improve, no matter how serious their psychiatric condition. He concluded:

·       "The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth…We cannot lose once we realize that everything that happens to us has been designed to teach us holiness…We are guaranteed winners!" (Further Along the Road Less Traveled)

Why are we “guaranteed winners?” Because our Savior guarantees it! Peck subsequently gave his life to the Lord.

PATIENCE, ENDURANCE, AND THE NATURE OF FAITH

Faith often tells us to wait, to endure without seeing the prayed-for results. Abraham had to wait for 25 years to receive the promised son, Isaac. Although he had been commended for his faith (Rom. 4), he often despaired and crashed. After several years of residence in the Promised Land, he despaired of having a son and made his servant, Eliezar, his heir. However, God renewed His promise to Abraham that he would have a son.

Although he believed God (Gen. 15:6), he again despaired and jumped on his wife's suggestion to sleep with her Servant girl, Hagar, to have their son by her. 

Once again, God had to reaffirm His promise of a son to Abraham. However, at this time, Abraham was 99 and his wife no longer had her period. Therefore, he laughed in disbelief (Gen. 17).

However, the next year, both Abraham and his wife Sarah were able to laugh in joy at the birth of their Isaac, meaning "laughter."

We too are made to endure discouragements that place our faith at the breaking point. We, therefore, clutch at our "Eliezars" and sleep with our "Hagars," anything to fill the aching void. We pursue our goals by placing our hope in all the wrong things - secular therapy, unbiblical lifestyles, and mindfulness meditation. 

However, life's discouragements are all part of our Lord's program:

·       “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Our Lord is always in the process of refining our faith so that our hope will be invested in Him alone. Moses became so discouraged with God. He had risked everything for the sake of liberating his people, Israel, and lost it all. He fled to Midian where he became a lowly shepherd. He was so discouraged with God that, when God encountered him in the midst of the burning bush 40 years later and instructed him to return to Egypt to perform the very task that had been in his heart, Moses refused God.

However, God has a blessed purpose for what He makes us endure. During these painful 40 years, God had made Moses into the humblest of men (Num. 12:3), so humble that he understood God beyond what others understood (Num. 12:8). 

We too need to understand the ways of God, lest we despair and lose hope. However, even when we do, our God remains faithful. He restored Abraham, Moses, and even the most righteous Job, who had brought many ignorant indictments against God in the midst of his suffering. However, God humbled him and then restored him.

We too will be humbled through the trials we must endure. However, this is only preparation for something far greater:

·       “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 12:11)

Therefore, let us brace ourselves for what might be a long wait!

Discouragement in the Lord

Israel had just been defeated by the Canaanites at Ai, and Joshua was deeply discouraged. Although only 36 Israelites had lost their lives in this battle, it signaled the fact that Israel was not invincible. This sent Joshua into a tail-spin:

• Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?” (Joshua 7:6-9)

Even worse than the fact that this defeat would have catastrophic effects on Israel’s Canaan campaign, it was discouraging for another reason. God had promised Joshua that no one would be able to resist him:

• No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Josh. 1:5)

However, Ai seemed to make a mockery out of this promise. They had just stood very successfully against Joshua and his Israelites. How could Joshua ever trust in the Lord and His promises again? If God had let him down once, why not again and again? No wonder Joshua was devastated and even imagined that he had done something wrong by having the hubris to cross the Jordan, believing that he would conquer the Promised Land.

However, Joshua’s problem was that he lacked an important piece of the puzzle, and this lack prevented him from understanding the defeat. God explained to Joshua that Israel had been defeated because they had sinned by violating the command of God:

• The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?  Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. (Josh. 7:10-12)

Sin will interfere with receiving any of God’s promises. We cannot expect the blessings of God if we reject the Word of God. Actually, it was only one person – Achan - who had sinned, but his sin involved the entire nation of Israel. We are our brother’s keeper, and whenever we allow unrepented sin in our midst, we all suffer.

With this knowledge, Joshua was able to address the problem, and Israel was once again enabled to stand. However, sometimes it seems as if the Word of God has failed. Paul had warned the church that although the Word might seem to have failed, it really hadn’t. It only seemed to have failed because we have interpreted it wrongly:

• It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. (Rom. 9:6-7)

In fact, God’s people have often despaired because it appeared as if God’s promises had failed. The Psalmist despaired as he viewed what had seemed to be the failure of the Davidic Covenant (Psalm 89). However, the Psalmist had regarding God’s promises too narrowly. We do the same thing and wrongly conclude that God has failed us.

Abraham had wrongly concluded that God had failed him. He had intervened with Yahweh for the salvation of Sodom where his beloved nephew Lot and his daughters resided. The next morning, he went out the mountain overlook to survey the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain. They had been utterly consumed. In despair, Abraham packed his bags and never returned to that area, convinced that Lot and his daughters had also been consumed. As far as we can tell, Abraham never found out his God had rescued them.

Our Lord is more faithful than our discouraged eyes are able to perceive.