A friend of mine was visiting China and was standing at her ninth floor balcony door looking across the courtyard to the building on the other side when all of a sudden a fellow walks out onto his tenth floor balcony and climbs over the railing. My friend couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched him fall to his death on the ground below. For him life had become so painful, so difficult that he decided he couldn’t go on living.
There is a tall building on the campus of a university somewhere in China where many students have jumped to their death. At the coffee shop I have heard students talking about it. The building has developed a strange reputation. Students jump to their death from one of two sides. They jump from one side if one can’t stand an internal struggle and from the other side if the struggle is external.
After mankind disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and chose to do as he pleased, He caused life to become difficult as part of man’s punishment. From that day forth trials and suffering became a normal part of life. This suffering, however, is not without purpose. It is a form of punishment, but as one studies the Bible one learns that suffering has been designed as a necessary requirement for spiritual growth. From our brief study of the five women we saw that God used pain in the life of each to develop godly characteristics in them.
When one chooses to end their life they remove an opportunity God has given them to either obtain eternal life or in the case of one who believes, the opportunity to learn more about God and his ways and to become more like Jesus Christ through spiritual growth. There is probably a point in the life of each person when life is so painful or difficult they feel they can’t endure any more. Most make it through those times, but some don’t. God promised us protection from life being too difficult (1 Corinthians 10:13), but some are not willing to endure and in their impatience decide not to go on with life.
I had a very close friend who many years ago ended his life. I still remember the pain I felt when it happened. Recently in one of my life groups a member told about her brother taking his life and how it affected her family.
For many, life in America is becoming very difficult. God blessed America with great wealth, but we were not satisfied and out of greed we went in debt to gather more of the world’s things to enjoy or to become in many cases a burden. Today we are beginning to pay the price of our greed. Let us endure our struggle and learn from God how to properly live. When one decides that the struggle is too great and that life is not worth living, one then closes the door on any further opportunity of growth. Let us be careful to obtain from life all that God would like us to experience. Because of his love for us he will never short change us.
