Nearer, My God, To Thee

May God richly Bless you today. Throughout our lives, first and foremost, God deserves honor and our Praise- for loving us, for keeping our world spinning, and for putting up with us.
This post had it’s genesis a week ago. I was watching “Lois and Clark-The New Adventures of Superman”. A cheesy show, but I like it. It struck me that the two “guest villains” of that episode are now dead: actor J.T. Walsh of a heart attack, and the other, Charles Rocket, of suicide. Suicide, as in couldn’t stand living anymore.
Then one of my brother’s co-workers committed suicide. Quite a shock-we are such a small town that everyone knows each others cousins, if only by reputation.
Each of these men had in common that they were roughly six years older than I am now. By God’s Grace, I’ve never messed up my life so terribly that the thought of ending it has ever occurred to me. I know from scripture that God sets the number of our days, for both saint and sinner. I’ve often read Psalm 37 for comfort, including:
“18 The LORD knows the days of the blameless,
And their inheritance will be forever.
19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.
20 But the wicked will perish;
And the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures,
They vanish—like smoke they vanish away.”

We are living now for eternity. We are in the existential “Green room”, waiting to go on.
However we die, whether by our own hand, or by accident, or illness, or any way noble, ignoble…God is in charge. When He calls us, we go.
Suicide has been called, “The coward’s way out.” That’s terribly unfair, and is very much a worldly viewpoint. We should have compassion on those who are so troubled that life becomes unbearable. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Can a Christian become so despondent that he or she would commit suicide? Absolutely. As I stated above, by God’s Grace I’ve never so messed up my life that I’ve considered ending it. But Christians, being human, sometimes do make quite a mess of their lives. Christians can suffer from depression, mental illness-we are not invincible, impervious to disease or damage. Whatever happens in this life, however our frailty is exhibited, whichever thorns we have in our sides, God is in charge. He loves us, He keeps our world spinning, and He numbers our days. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.