I am sorry that I did not get a post done for the past couple of days, but among some other things going on, our family got some sad news and I just took the time off to think about it, talk to my family and pray for the people involved in the situation that we had learned are going through something very hard in their lives this week. I want to share some of it with you.
Years ago, we were going to a small church in our community then in Ohio. We were involved with others our ages that were raising their families as we were. My husband cleaned the church every week and I helped with the kids' ministries there. Those were good years, and we had met some wonderful people that loved the Lord.
Well, here we are years later. Our kids have all grown and some have their own families. Larry and I moved to a different state, and he is now in heaven with Jesus. So many changes have happened and with that the thought comes, "Where did all those years go?"
Monday evening, first I got a text from my daughter. A young man we had known from that time had suddenly passed away. She sent his obituary to me. He was just 39 years old. I had been good friends with his mom those years but due to changes in the church and in the different families that attended there, we had lost touch with each other. Finding that he was now gone at such a young age, was a shock and I wondered how it happened.
My son who still lives in that general area, then called later and he too wondered about it. It especially hit him because at the time, he was about 6 years older than this young man (who was about 5 at the time) and as a family we were very much involved in the lives of the other families, not only in church but also in 4H.
Yesterday evening, we learned the harsh truth. He had taken his own life. I will not go into the things we would learn about it. But we now wonder the question of Why?
What was so wrong in his life that he felt this was his only option. After years of teaching the children about God who loves them, how did he come to that. His parents were Christians. Those in the Childrens' ministry were Christians.
He isn't the first one out of that group to go this way into eternity. Some months ago, another young man was found dead of a drug overdose. It was the same with his family in the church, although theirs was later broken due to divorce. But still, his mother continued to raise him and did the best she could, and she loved the Lord even though life had become tough for them.
So why do people do the things they do to leave their problems in this world behind?
I really believe that kids today have it different from the young world I came from. Back then, the struggles stemmed from drugs and alcohol. And then came the rebellion of the free sex stuff in the 60s-70s and life began to take on an openness of what explodes into the world still. The internet with its Facebook, My Space and all the other social media teens goes to make friends and become somebody they weren't meant to be by God. And on there too are the dangerous sites that can tempt them into evil. All these have been added in the last few years to be included into the insanity of this world. On top of that, we have schools teaching our kids that it is ok to be different than who they were at birth. You can assign yourself a different sex, despite who God created you. What a slap in His face that must be to him. David in the Bible acknowledged in the Psalms that God knew him in his mother's womb. God created each of us and knitted us together. How can we believe it is ok to believe we can change who we are, is beyond me. Then there are even some people like the man that believes he is a dog, and he actually eats dogfood out of cans of dogfood from a bowl on the floor, just like our pets do, let alone all the other things he does because he believes himself to be a real dog. And many parents are letting this happen. They are letting sex education be taught to their preschoolers. They are letting drag queens read story books to their young children about it being ok to be drag queens. And yet, Christians that want to read books in libraries about God are not allowed? How crazy is that?
And how dark this world has become.
I could go on. But I know that you don't need me to because you too are aware of what is out there in the craziness going on.
And with all of this, is it any wonder why kids today are confused about who they are? Is it any wonder why they are taking their own lives?
It is insanity to me.
But then, I look back and wonder at those that we know that have not been a real part of this stuff going on today, like my husband who himself committed suicide almost 2 years ago.
I understood it too late. For him it had been much about the Viet Nam war. Stil all these years later. He could not get over what had happened to the young man that had gone there to serve his country. He had left that young man there and came home a different person, as so many other have.
Friends, why? What has happened to those around us that have suffered terrible things and do not understand or get help?
It's because they have not been able to let Jesus in enough to heal them of whatever is wrong. Maybe they don't know Him anyway. Maybe they don't want Him. Maybe they don't believe in Him.
And they struggle. With life. And when they can't take it anymore, they call it quits.
I don't know if the young people in this story were saved when they took their lives. But I know my husband was because he had said he was not long before he left us.
My family and myself had no idea the pain he was in until after he passed. But God did. Just like he knew the pain these kids from our long ago past had suffered as well. I pray they had at some point given their lives to Jesus and are in heaven and at peace now.
In Romans 8:37. we find that we are more than conquerors in Christ that loves us. So why didn't/don't those people conqueror the things that they find they could no longer live with?
I have no answer to that. Only God knows their inner struggles and pain. But this is what I do know.
These following verses makes it plain that nothing can separate us from His love.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 3 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:33-39
If they had come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ at some point before taking their life, I believe they went to be with the Lord.
Yes, I know for a fact that my husband had known Christ in his life despite what he had been through in war. And I believe I will see him again when I get there. As for the two young men I have written about today. One mother believes her son was saved when he died. I have not talked yet with the mother who has just passed. But I hope she and her family have the same hope as we do. Because Friends, that is our ultimate goal. For our family and friends and ourselves to one day be with Jesus in heaven.
Until then, I grieve with these families for their children. I pray it never hits any of my family again because I know what they are going through. But I trust in the God that loves us more than anything we can possibly know.
And that my friends is a fact that we can take to the bank because He told us so.
Thanks for sharing time with me today, Friends. I pray you have not had to go through these kinds of situations in your family and friends' lives. If you have, there is still hope. Turn to Jesus, as He is our only hope! God bless!
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