Why did you do it?

A few months ago there was a suicide near our home; a young lady jumped from a multi-story building. Her boyfriend quickly rushed to the scene and was overhead shouting “Why did you do it?” a common question to raise following such an incident. The young lady, crushed by the fall, groaned and breathed her last as the paramedics arrived.

It’s not an easy world to live in these days; suicide is one of the leading causes of death in young people and when we look at our world it is not too surprising is it. We have never been more connected to the world or more isolated from each other; never more separated from our true identity as children of God. Being driven to despair may not be a long journey.

The mind and heart can be fragile and we are subjected to a very high degree of trauma every day through news from around the globe as it happens; through pressures in life from every side; and that’s before we factor in the malevolent supernatural beings whose plan is our annihilation. So, quite a lot to contend with on a regular monday morning.

Other pressures are more specific and personal to our lives that can drive people to despair. As Christians we have a way to deal with these things from deliverance prayer, where there is demonic oppression, to counselling and healing prayer. And I believe the key to prevention of suicides; is prayer for one another; especially from or for your loved ones as the primary means of intervention; other things can also be helpful of course, but only God can make the difference in our lives; only He can deal with our invisible wounds. Like in Isaiah where it says about Jesus ‘The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’ And He will do it if we call on Him.

‘Daily bread’

I heard a story recently that sparked an inspiration. It was about a man who was on his way home from shopping and he passed a young woman, a street dweller from her attire, who seemed in great distress. There’s a look in someone’s eyes that tells you that they are about to cave-in or give up hope. She had that look. All he had handy was a bunch of bananas and giving that seemed an inadequate response.

The rest of the short distance home he prayed for the woman, with more than a dash of self-pity for himself too. He would like to have been able to help but was unemployed and the roof over his own head was thanks to the good graces of another. If only God had given him a job and an income he could do a lot for others in need. His conscience seemed to answer him as he thought that the best thing would be to do what he could in the moment.

On arriving home he resolved to do just that; flung open the cupboards and set about preparing a few items. A tin of sardines, a sandwich box with a few slices of bread, a sachet of ketchup from a fast food outlet, a bottle of water, a clean t-shirt and a couple of the aforementioned bananas and then hurried back to the place he had seen the woman. She was still sat on the pavement, leaning against the wall of a building, a tormented and now slightly embarrassed look on her face as he dropped off the package with a few words. As he walked away her face brightened a little as she investigated the contents of the bag. A little light shone in the darkness of her situation; an immediate need met.

The story put me in mind of the part of the Our Father where we ask for our daily bread. For many it’s a matter of routine having already secured rather more than the daily bread, the weekly wage, the monthly salary, the annual pension or even state benefit ticks that box. For others it is a real plea from the heart, one which Our Father does answer, but he does need the cooperation of those he has already blessed in abundance.

Often people think they can do nothing to change the world, but the truth is that however short we may be or perceive ourselves to be, there is no one who can do nothing, we can all help our neighbor just by doing what we can in the moment as it’s presented to us. If the roles were reversed, what would we hope for or expect?

Freelance Writer