Barry Manilow wrote a song he entitled “One Voice” and, in the lyrics of that song, he speaks of “one voice singing in the darkness.” Troubled one, will you not listen to that one voice softly speaking, even singing, in your darkness. That voice is the voice of your Creator, if you will but listen. And that voice cries out in your anguish, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Turn a dear ear to any and all voices that speak to the contrary. God loves you and assures you – it’s a promise – “You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart” (See Jeremiah 29:13). Seek the Lord and find Him for He is not far from every one of us. (See Acts 17:22-31).
I repeat, the taking of one’s life is NOT the unpardonable sin. I assure you those poor innocents who threw themselves off of the Twin Trade Towers as they were burning and in danger of collapse, did NOT commit the unpardonable sin. The horror of a slow death by fire compelled them to end their lives as swiftly as possible. Jesus Himself said, “the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Our Lord walked in our shoes, so to speak, for thirty-three years. He knows how difficult life can be. The taking of one’s life is an offense against God, but not the unpardonable sin. But most of us members of the human family offend our Creator in some manner, large or small, every day. So we dare not judge or condemn one who has committed an offense different from our own. The person who ends their life by their own hand is saying something quite clearly and as loudly as possible. They are saying, “I cannot go on any longer. I cannot bear this burden one more hour.” To the survivors, it is the final slamming down of the phone. We cannot answer. We cannot reply. We cannot repair the connection. Thank God our Creator’s understanding is unfathomable, His mercy limitless, His compassion all-encompassing. It is difficult at best to fully know one’s own mind. We cannot truly know the mind of another. Only God knows the real WHY when one terminates their fleshly walk for oblivion. The One who said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” has quite often heard the words, “Into thy hand I commit my spirit.” Yes, even from the lips and heart of one moments before they stop their own heart from beating.
.There are two great truths that every would-be suicide would do well to keep in mind: 1) One never knows what is around the corner of time. Perhaps the most fulfilling, happy, joyous days of life lay yet ahead, and 2) One can always hold out a little longer. Even those who say they cannot endure one more day or one more hour, if they would put down the gun, step back from the river’s edge, or take the noose from around their neck, they would find that they can indeed hold out a little longer.
There is a Christian song that says, “tears are a language God understands.” And that is true. God’s promise is to wipe away all tears from our eyes. We are not to stop the tears from flowing by killing ourselves. That really is no solution at all, for the suicide is then faced with the terrible sin of murder – self murder – and there will be a day of reckoning. “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ…every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (See Romans 14:10,12).
The would-be suicide has perhaps tried everything else. Why not try God? Why not surrender your life to the guidance and control of the Holy Spirit and enjoy that peace that surpasses all understanding? “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). The would-be suicide’s mind is fixed on self, one’s own problems and hardships. Fix your mind on God and on His goodness and eagerness to help, to bless and console.
Fear God and keep His commandments. One of those commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.” “Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are but dust….But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him” (See Psalm 103:13-14, 17). God knows what you are made of, friend. He knows your emotions, your personality, your physical and mental strengths and weaknesses and all your disabilities, and, therefore, He says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” Take Him up on His gracious offer and live!
Know that the Great God of Glory is the One of whom it has been said, “God IS love!” I truly do not believe that the one who ends their own life prematurely will then come face-to-face with an angry God. They will come face to face with One who loves them enough to die for them and whose mercy has no bounds. But they will come face to face with One who must judge them for their the terrible act of self murder. Please believe these things for they are true. And they will come face to face, following a resurrection, with One of whom the apostle Paul said, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out..” (See Romans 11:33).
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley