The cause of suicide is ultimately a loss of hope. A person loses all hope that life is good or can be good today; tomorrow or ever.
People who consider suicide or commit suicide have lost sight of the fact that their life is valuable. There is something valuable about their life. They are concentrated on the circumstances of life which are often out of our control. The answer to suicide is the same as the Sunday School answer to all life… Jesus. Hope lost cannot be recovered outside of the living hope of Jesus. Often we put our hope in things we feel like we can control. Things that ultimately cannot satisfy all the time in every way. Things that often fail us. And when those things fail us, we lose all
Hope.
Things we place our hope in:
- Family
- Marriage
- Spouse
- Money
- Good job
- Being accepted
- Being right
- Being in control
- Health
When these things flop, as often they do, then hopelessness is a sure thing because the things we have hoped in are not working. A life without hope is black and empty; void of any reason to try or live. And that leads to thoughts of ending life: often believing that ending life will end the suffering that goes with hopelessness.
Why Suicide is so prevalent:
People suffer with a loss of hope because they see the world from a worldview and not a Godview. We have human observation without biblical interpretation. In other words we see circumstances (sickness, death, assault, shape of the world, hatred, covid, politics) from a human view. And when that lens is cracked or broken that is how we view the situation; Through a messed up lens. And it is then cracked, broken and unfixable. It’s like walking through a thick fog and not being able to see a lifting of the fog anywhere.
But when we see the world through a God lens we see hope in all the suffering. There is a reason for the suffering . It points us to Jesus. It reminds us that he created us for perfection and is working to return us there. It is not hopeless because he never forsakes his own. He never gives up. We rest in the one who holds all circumstances in his hands. Suicide thoughts cause us to view the world we see through a ruined lens that then comes up with our own rationals or reasons for why things happen and a belief that nothing good can come out of bad. A God view says everything in my life has a purpose: including the really hard stuff; the stuff that makes me curl up in a ball or scream with grief. It all has a purpose. It all works to drive me to Jesus and call out to him. It all works to his glory which is always for my good. My suffering has purpose. And it is a season. It will not last forever. But suicide is a forever solution. I never get to see the end of the hard season if I choose suicide. A Godview says there is hope in Jesus Christ; in his life. There is hope. Don’t quit in the hard season. The glory of the next season is coming.