Can we just be honest? Life is hard. Sometimes life gets so hard that your mind might tell you that you can’t handle it any longer. “If one more thing happens, I will literally just give up because it’s better than the alternative of just being in pain.”
While I cannot say that death is or is not better than life, given I’ve never experienced it, I can say that staying in the fight for your life (because it is indeed a fight), beats giving up every time.
You see, there are people who have given up on living a long time ago, but who are still alive for reasons beyond those of which we have time to discuss at this moment. The Walking Dead. They are numb, emotionless, cold, guarded, and unbothered people who have given up on the pursuit of any sense of happiness that life may have to offer.
Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes, more concerningly so, it is not.
They may for all intents and purposes appear to live “normal” lives, have families, work good jobs, go on vacations and the like. All the while inside there is a longing for a feeling that is so far removed that they’ve almost forgotten what is missing.
If you’re one of these unfortunate souls who have found themselves in this situation, I want you to know that you are not alone. I also want you to know that just as surely as you feel empty today, the opposite is just as possible for you.
If you haven’t before, I encourage you to investigate the story of Job from the Bible. Even if you are not religious or Christian, I am sure Job’s story will be of interest as he was one of the people in Bible who if there was ever a “good” reason to commit suicide, he had it.
Instead, Job had something that many of us lack – perspective.
Job was able to see that his being did not have to be predicated on his circumstances, nor his feelings. For Job, his faith in God and the belief that God is good even if his life is not, was the thing that kept him going.
We can argue “Well if God is good then why would He let someone like Job go through such painful situations repeatedly?”
To answer that question, we must realize that there is an evil in this world whose sole purpose and agenda is to kill, steal, and destroy any relationship (or chance of a relationship) that you might have with God. Evil does not discriminate between believers and non-believers. It’s just that one group knows more about their attacker than the other.
The enemy of any person wants to take you out any way they can. That’s just the cold hard truth.
Have you ever realized during times of war that when the adversary is at their greatest weakness… that is when the enemy applies its greatest force?
For us, I do believe that our mind is our battlefield. This is one of the reasons why it is so important that you guard your thoughts and your heart, because “for as a man thinketh, in his heart so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV).
So, if you’ve been having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please know even though these thoughts feel very real, they are simply an attack of the enemy that wants nothing more than for you to hand over your life to them… for them to claim as another win.
Instead, I challenge you to fight back.
And while no one else can fight for you, we can fight with you. We can be there to cover you when the battlefield is tiring, and you need a reprieve to recover. Whether through therapy, faith, medication, hospitalization, or some combination of these things, help is available.
You do not have to, nor should you try to, fight this battle alone. Jesus loves you!
