There is nothing harder than seeing someone you know and care about fight with the struggle and temptation of suicide. What would take someone to that level of despair that they would strive to take their own life? What can be done to help them? Why is it that we are past 2020 and we can’t even figure out what medication to give people, yet we attempt to interact with mental health like we understand the complexities of the human mind?
Darkness. The place where suicide derives from. It is a dark place filled with hopelessness and despair and unimaginable misery. But why… Why do some people fight it and others never struggle? Why is suicide something that has increased over the past few years as we get richer and better equipped with the joys of this world. Never before in the history of the world has man had more ability to relax, rewind, and think happy thoughts, yet all the things that should increase our “mental health” don’t. How is it that we live in a society where suicide is not just present, but common?
What gives life value? Is it happiness? Well, I have been hearing my entire life about doing what makes you “happy,” but the people who pursue that don’t seem any happier. Why do we so strongly pursue something that changes? Always changes… Why would we make the solution to a terrible problem something that is ever changing and relative, and shaky? That would be like trying to base our entire life on what our favorite color is. For most people that changes, and so does what makes us happy.
Let me ask you, does money make people happy? So why are most of the suicides in our society in affluent communities? Will having both the mother and the father present make someone happy? Then why do so many suicides take place in traditional homes? Why is it that the best answer that we can come up with is happiness, but there is never a lasting happiness. Every time a new phone comes out, people think it will make them happy, but that only lasts until another new phone is marketed.
Then we try to say, “medicine will fix the problem,” well isn’t that what they said about opioids, and now look where we are. The definition of insanity is trying the same exact thing over again and expecting a different result. Well, why do we as a culture continue to preach the same lies about treating mental health, when clearly it isn’t working?
Personally, I think a lot of it is because we have devalued human life as a western society. We live in a society that has been taught that we are no more than evolved animals. We have seen over the past 100 years an incredible amount of murder over baseless predjudice. We live in a society that is ‘ok’ with the taking of human life right from the mother’s womb. We live in a society that says, as long as someone has lived a long life, it is ‘ok’ to take their life away with the proper consent. Well then let me ask you, if someone isn’t happy, why shouldn’t they be able to take their own life? If someone is caving under the pressure and miserable, then who cares? Anyone should be able to take their life at any time, for any reason. After all, it’s their body, their choice,
isn’t it?
We have evolved enough to where we can do that humanely, so why shouldn’t we?
We then answer with things like “what about all of the people that they leave behind” and “they had so much to live for.” Where is the hope in being slightly better than the monkeys, or brought here by aliens, and then you get to die one day and are placed six feet under. We have created a culture in which this type of thinking is prevalent. That was us, we did that. And now we think it is ‘ok’ to tell these people who already feel hopeless to find something that makes them happy? Are you kidding me? Great, so we helped them for about 6 days, and then what? On to the next thing that makes them happy for a short period of time?
So in summary, the two reasons why we give life value is because ‘we have so much to live for, and there are people who care about us, and if we died we’d be leaving them behind. If we look at the first piece, what do we believe that we have to live for? When exploring this question we tend to respond with the experiences that we will have, and the times that we will enjoy. So again, what we are saying as a society, is that it is happiness that we can look forward to that is a reason for living, and a reason for not dying.
If that is true, if we actually believe that to be true, then why do we not allow assisted suicides as a viable option for someone to take their life? If we believe that our value comes from our potential happiness, then if someone decides that they would rather not look for that, then they should have the freedom to choose to end it all. If that is what we believe as a society, then why is it that we have not adapted to those changing ideas? Maybe it is because we know, in our very being, in our very souls, that human life has value.
What gives life value? I promise you that it is not the house you live in, or the shoes you wear, or the friends you have. What gives life value is so much deeper and more pure than anything that we could ever accumulate with money. What gives life value is intimacy. The reason that life has value is because of the relationship that we are able to have with a Being that is so miraculous that He was able to speak all of the universe into existence with nothing but His word. A Being so loving, that He made such a lowly creature into the very image of Himself. A Being so intimate, that He desires to walk with us and call us friend.
This Being is the God of the Bible. The author and sustainer of all things. The Savior of the world. This is what gives life value. And God, by His love, has written on the hearts of all mankind that life has value. No matter how far some may stray from that reality, we still know deep down that life has value. Life has value because God has given life value, and that is something that will never change.
No matter the age, race, color, language, background, gender, battles, temptations, or choices, God has given life value. No one is ‘too far gone’ to be outside of God’s love. No people group can be outside of God’s reach. No individual, no matter their pain, is any less valuable in the eyes of God than the next.
We may not be able to answer why it is that God has put such high value on mankind, but we do know that God’s love for us is insurmountable in the history of antiquity. God valued us so much that while we were still in rebellion against Him, enemies of the state, villains, He still gave of Himself on the cross to save us from the reality of sin, which is death. We serve a God whose love is so extravagant that He continually seeks us no matter how many times we run from Him; a God who desires for us to treat all people with the same love, respect, and value that He has given to us as His creation; a God who is love.
What gives life value? God. Nothing else that we can designate from existence will ever carry with it a foundation that is stable enough to hold us. What gives life value? A God who took us from our lowest place, and made us children of Himself, the King. What gives life value? A God who asks for nothing but faith in Him, who took our sins away.
What gives your life value? No matter who you are, what you have done, or what you may be feeling; you will never be outside of the love of God. You are created in His image, and will always have value. You may not always feel His presence, but I promise you that He is there. Better yet, He promises that He will never leave you or forsake you. God has given your life value. And if the Creator of the universe values our lives, then why would we need to take it away with suicide?
God gives your life value!
If you are battling with thoughts of suicide, please reach out to someone. Reach out to a Pastor, Youth Pastor, parent, or friend. If you don’t know who to turn to, please reach out to us at our contact page here.
