Its been quite a while since I last posted a blog here. I doubt any will see it, which is perfectly fine with me. But had a little ulceration with a family friend over the issue of judging. She accused me of judging her simply because I did not walk in her shoes. This was after she attempted to commit suicide and wrote my son her suicide note. Supposedly she is a Christian, yet this act was an act of cowardice. After she emailed my son her suicide note, she swallowed a bunch of pills and was discovered by her sister just in time. After a well-deserved rebuke by me for her cowardly act, I became the recipient of her claim that I didn't understand because I didn't walk her life and therefore, basically, had no right to judge her. There really is no way to say this but that the accusation demonstrates total and utter ignorance. I had believed that this young woman was smart but pain and depression will drive us to do things that are just outright stupid. I've heard this argument before, "you don't understand because you've never done what I've done". I can certainly understand the accusation. It may come with some heat or emotion. I can sympathize and even empathize. But Christians really have no room to say something like this when dealing with others who care about them. It is not about identifying. It is about caring. This she admitted. She knew I cared. Yet because I could not identify, I was accused of comparing my life to hers. Which is a very silly accusation. Also, I would reiterate that the act of suicide is a selfish act. But one might claim it is not a selfish act because, as Paul states, "It is far better to be with the Lord than in the body". And David had many opportunities to take the life of Saul yet refrained because he acknowledged that God is the one who brings justice. And I like the story of Abigail who pleaded to David, who was on his way to kill "every male that breathes in Nabel's house", not to take vengeance with his own hands (but leave justice to the Lord). Suicide violates this precept by exacting violence on one's own self instead of allowing the Lord to exact justice. It is still a death whether destroying Nabal or destroying oneself. The reason why it was wrong for David to take this matter into his own hands, though a wrong was done against him, was that Nabal was made in God's image and had done nothing worthy of death at the hand of another. Abigale pointed out that the man was a fool, but a greedy, selfish man is not enough to be put to death, it is not against the law to be a fool. Desiring to see God is not a valid reason to take one's own life. For killing what God has made to be freed of whatever infirmity one is stricken with, only warrants a strong rebuke. For a Christian life does not belong to him or herself to do with it whatever they happen to fancy. The correct retort to this young woman's comment about "What right do I have" for saying these things is simply, "You are not your own". A Christian was bought with a very lofty price by Christ himself. She or he has no business destroying the prize that Jesus has purchased for himself to do with us whatever seems fit of him. These she cannot or refuses to see because of her pain and her depression. Just talked with a man this past Sunday who has been diagnosed with bi-polar and a host of other mental conditions brought about from drug and alcohol abuse. Much to the contrary of this young woman's judgement of me, I know all about mental illness because my father died with it. But she is in pain and is trapped in the culture today that does not want to hear about the truth of their sinful condition. They want everyone to feel bad for them and so they never move from that one spot ahead. Life is always worth living even in our times of pain and suffering. God is preparing for us a house, and would we try to speed this process up on our own? He beckons us to be still and know him. Suicide is always a shortcut and utter selfishness for it teaches us to look at the storm and not at the one who calms the storm in our lives. It was not his will to remove the thorn from Paul yet here we has "Christians" willing to remove their lives from this earth though it be not the will of the Father. This is a contradiction we would be wise to dismiss from our minds. -Joe