PLEASE DON'T KILL YOURSELF!

“The paper called it suicide. A bullet from a forty-five. Nobody cared and nobody cried. Don't that make you feel sad?” - “Suicide”  Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group. written by Philip Parris Lynott

I don’t know who I am writing this for; or why you are reading this. Perhaps you, too are …considering…thinking about… but, Please don’t kill yourself!

I thought of you as I drove by the bridge today. I saw the memorial and I knew what it meant. It had been placed there by someone who deeply loved the person who had taken their own life. I thought of the time when a police chaplain told me that he had to deal with two who had taken their lives at that same spot at different times on the same day. I asked him how he dealt with it. He told me that "you just do; you get used to it". I told him that I never want to get used to it.

I thought of you as I drove by the park today. I saw the memorial and I knew what it meant. I had been there when the police arrived and knew what their arrival had meant. It was confirmed when I read the article in the paper the next day. One of the persons who witnessed the death said, when interviewed; “I wish I'd never seen that…” Please don’t kill yourself!

As I drove by I also thought of several friends of mine whose answer to their pain was taking their own lives. I still think of them occasionally and feel the loss.

I know that right now all you might be feeling is that nobody knows or even cares or will even miss you, but they, we, and I do; even though we don’t know you at this moment. Everywhere I drive I see make-shift memorials on the spots where people kill themselves. We read the articles in the paper and we grieve and we will grieve if you go through with it. So, Please don’t kill yourself!

Your death (not your life or even you) will be forever branded upon the eyes of those who come alongside of what you do next. It is your family who will wonder what else could have been done, even though right now it may seem to you as though they don’t care. And even if they don’t care, I DO! That is why I am pleading with you; Please don’t kill yourself!

Please take the advice of one who has lost several friends to suicide; the pain we feel after you are gone is so much greater than anything you are going through right now. They may have thought it ended the pain; but for the rest of us it still continues over thirty years later as I ponder what could have been done to stop them.

One of them told me five minutes before he killed himself that ‘everything was great’ and that he was ‘fine’. Another told me that he’d rather stay at home than to hang with all of us friends. He said that he was tired and needed to get some sleep. They were two of seven friends who left my world through suicide.

It is the police, fire, and medical personnel. They are the ones who have to “clean up the mess” and go on with their lives as forever they will be haunted by what they saw. I’ve spoken with them; they really wished that those whom they had to “clean up” would have at least given them a call so that, perhaps, they could have gotten the help that was needed. Now, instead, many lives are hurt.

Every year more than 800,000 people in the United States try to kill themselves. That translates into one suicide attempt every 39 seconds. Worldwide, more than a million people kill themselves annually. And my guess is that not one of them truly found the peace that they were really looking and longing for. Please don’t kill yourself!

 

I know that you may feel worthless at this moment and really need some encouragement and hope in your life. I know that nothing seems to be going right for you and you conclude that you need to quit. But don’t quit before God is done with your situation. He really can fix anything!

 

I know that right now all you might be feeling is sadness and you don’t see any way out of your current situation. I really do know; I, too, have been there at a couple different times in at life. I know what it is like to struggle with wanting to end the anguish NOW and feeling that there is no hope. But there is HOPE that things can change. They really can get better; I promise you.

Please don’t kill yourself! Hang in there so you don’t miss out on what God has planned for you. God’s best is yet to come!

Have you had enough of what this world has to offer and want true freedom? Call 1-888-NEED HIM. Someone is waiting to talk with you