To Live or Not to Live

Have you ever had one of those awful days when the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and you're standing there depressed in a crowd cloaked by an unseen shadow, secretly hoping for a big black Exit-sign of a hole to suddenly appear and swallow you whole?

Worse still, the whole stupid world tells you to keep on smiling because, Hey, it could be worse. You vomit up yet another plastic smile while shrinking smaller, ever smaller, gripped in a crushing gravity-well of grinding despair.

But Shhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone. Gotta keep that smile plastered on. After all, they'll think you're crazy. So you keep lunging on aimlessly through the bog and quicksand sinking a little farther with each faltering step - dying one dream at a time.

Like vapors rising from a fog, there are dark, haunting thoughts echoing madly across the landscape of your soul. You press mechanically onward while going through all the tiresome motions of living, tormented by the prospect of facing yet another lonely hour. You fear unknown sounds; you dread the silence more. You're stalked by shadows and despair. You swear you somehow hear demons laughing. You finally dare to peer deeply into your own soul - and find nothing but still deeper shades of darkness hungering to swallow you into eternal night.

After simmering in unspoken thought, a deluge of desperate, final solutions begin to heat like volcanic fissures boiling over in lethal fury. They burn, burn, burn inside your screaming head like poisoned brew from a witch's cauldron.

"To be, or not to be" isn't just some abstract question from English Literature any longer, but the crossroads where you finally live or die. You're graded Pass or Fail, no make up exams and second chances accepted.

To live, or not to live - that remains the only question.

Suicide is a permanent solution to what is always a temporary problem. Death isn't the end of life, but the doorway into eternity. If you decide to kill yourself, you don't check your emotional baggage at the door - you carry its load forever.

A noose around your neck, a pill and a Coke, a razor to your wrist - all flash like neon EXIT signs inviting you to step through one fleeting flash of pain into the devilish snare of a whispered promise of "peace." But you're afraid, so you beg fate to finish you off with a private mercy killing that never comes. And finally you're paralyzed between time and eternity, stranded in a tormented twilight zone: afraid to live, and afraid to die.

Your eternal fate hangs like pivoting balance scales suspended by the merest thread of hope, and you dangle like a charred, broken puppet between two choices: life or death.

You inch your way to the edge that overlooks eternity and you either decide to finally live, or you lunge headlong, free-falling into the maelstrom of forever death … and the hellish nightmare begins anew, except that this time, the shadows and specters have form and fang, and they feast on souls of the damned. It's too late to be sorry - there is no returning.

Suicide is a one way trip to Hell.

Before you decide to undertake killing yourself, you need to seriously consider the destinations. If this life were an end in itself, if there were no God, no Heaven or Hell, no eternity, and all of creation was merely a cosmic hit-and-run accident, then you would be the victim of one cruel, sick and sorry joke. But if the Bible is true, and this life is given by God, and you throw yourself away by suicide, then you lose permanently in this life and the next.

Some people commit suicide by slow degree: one more pill, one more sex partner, one more round of Russian roulette just to keep the game interesting, one more dreaded thing to be avoided till you're too tired to care, and then you finally crash and die. Others take a more direct approach. You can either die by degrees or quite suddenly. Both are equally fatal.

The sobering Truth is this: No matter how you may finally exit from this life, all roads out finally lead to Hell, except One which leads to Heaven.

And God offers the better way.

Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death."

You've spent your life listened to a world that tells you bitter lies, sweet lies, convenient "truths," the babbled ramblings of confused experts who, in private, stare dejectedly into the same empty mirrors as you, and it all finally seems a collective whirl of ash, smoke, and broken promises. Does anyone really know their place in this universe?

If you're considering suicide, why not consider Life! The Bible is God's love letter to you. If you think of life like a big test, the really Good News is that it was designed to be an Open Book test - you can't pass successfully until you open the Book!

John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.'" If you feel orphaned in the universe, it's because that empty place inside of you was meant to be filled by God Himself. God never intended you to go this life alone.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to set free those in darkness. Don't believe in a devil? How's this for a set of identifying fingerprints? Jesus said, in John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Consider John 8:44. "… the devil… was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

If there are voices screaming in your skull that you deserve to die, demanding that you end your life, consider this verse carefully. Jesus said that he came that you might have life; the devil is intent upon destroying you, yet he is the father of lies, so why listen to him? There is no truth in him - you do not have to kill yourself!

Who will you believe? Who do you want to spend forever with?

God knows the heart numbing pain you're feeling, and He has a better way. If you're tired of going it alone in this universe, with a very simple prayer, you can offer your broken heart to God and ask Him to finally end the tormenting thoughts by giving you His free gift of Eternal Life!

There are people who love you and suicide is the ultimate act, not of self-loathing, but of selfishness. Without Jesus, killing yourself only starts the terror of a Christless eternity a few years early. God never destined people for Hell. Jesus said that Hell was created as a sort of eternal prison for the devil and his angels, so why go that route? It is not God's will for you to go there - He created Heaven to be your home.

The really Good News is that God has wonderful purposes for you in the here and now, if you'll only surrender your broken heart to him and follow Him. And if your heart is shattered into so many pieces you doubt that even God can count them, ask Him to try anyway. He has a wonderful way of surprising people who call out to Him.

While there are issues you need to work through, the first and most important is what voice to believe. God is calling out to you through the fog of your blinding unbelief to believe in Jesus Christ, cast your cares upon him, and to live forever. You already know the lies and darkness other voices have been whispering to you. Decide now to either believe Jesus, who is the Truth, or the devil, who is a liar.

Don't throw your life away on a lie.

If you're crying for a way out, I urge you to call upon the Lord NOW and be saved. Let Him heal you and shatter the twisted lies and chains of shame that are slowly dragging you into a devil's Hell.

God longs to wrap His arms around you and love you as your Heavenly Father. He cares for you and sent His Son Jesus into this world to save you. If you can simply accept that, you can live and not die. Put the gun away, flush the pills, and pray!

Call a believing friend in Christ, but above all, call out to God (Jesus). He promises that if you'll seek Him with all your heart, you'll find Him.

If you're serious about Jesus, or just want to talk through a problem, contact me or the author of this article, Bryan.

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