Let me start by saying ALL life is precious. I believe we must value life including our own life.
I read this article, not just the title, so let me share my thoughts. I am called to compassion, love, mercy and hope first. This article has many holes just is the person suffering from Suicide. My comments are from the perspective of understanding how to help any person in affliction of any kind.
The definition of Selfish: (of a person, action, or motive) lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure
The definition of Depression: severe despondency and dejection, typically felt over a period of time and accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy
Katie Hurley makes a great case for compassion but does not adequately defend the title of her article: ”Nothing Selfish About Suicide”.
The definition of Compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
Mrs. Hurley charges that “Until you’ve stared down that level of depression, until you’ve lost your soul to a sea of emptiness and darkness… you don’t get to make those judgments.” She further expels, “you are certainly entitled to your own feelings, but making those judgments and spreading that kind of negativity won’t help the next person.”
So this is what I am replying. I have starred down into a deep level of depression. Self-loathing, deprecating, meager, listlessly gasping for air like a gold fish out of the water, was a daily existence for me. I was medicating with anything I could get a hold of. Nothing was able to reach me in the pit of despair I was in…. accept for Jesus. The only Hope for any of this is Jesus. It was the call of the Lord God almighty, which was His Holy Spirit whispering to me softly and sweetly and even though there was such loud Chaos in my life, God wanted me to know about Jesus. That He suffered that I should not have to!
The only hope is Jesus. He came to seek and save the lost. I did not see any mention of this. In the article but I did see a self-help line and ads for books about the clinical solutions to depression.
You can’t hear or see God when you are self-absorbed. All sin is (SELFISH) self-absorbing. The bible say anything not of faith is sin. The call of sin is to destroy. It lies, it placates, it dulls the senses, it toys with emotion, it will fill your head with conceit and fill your head with loathing whatever place it can get a hold of to grow and fester it will take advantage of whatever opportunity opens.
There was some good advice in the article: in the “You can Help” section, Mrs. Hurley tells us to understand the warning signs, check on friends, reach out to survivors, encourage them to get help. She is actually telling us to be “Present” in one another’s lives. This is what Jesus taught as well to be compassionate followers and Love one another. In order to be compassionate you have to be involved. The best thing we can teach the ones we Love is about the servant hood of Christ. And the best way to teach that is to live it out daily. But apart from Jesus there is no hope, there is no help. We learn through the words of God that we are dependent on God (for everything) while at the same time inner-dependent on others. The first step in being set free from any affliction in our lives is Salvation through Jesus Christ.
As a follow up article from Huffington Post I would read: “What Kids really Need from Their Parents” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/12/robin-williams-quote-about-daughter_n_5671207.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
May God Richly Bless You,
Pastor Win Anderson