Life and Death are like Yes and No…

My sister came back from a trip to New York City with different stories of places she’d gone or seen but there was one story in particular that stuck out. She had been passing a hotel when all of a sudden police cars came around the corner and the roads were blocked. Through all the commotion she found out that a man was standing at the top of the building with his feet at the edge threatening to jump. Even though NYC is one of the biggest places to shoot movies and shows, this was not an act, this was real. Just knowing that this man was not kidding and that it was indeed for real, made my sister a bit uncomfortable and she proceeded to leave. Later though, she found out the man did not jump but she overheard a rather disturbing comment about the whole thing. This man said, “The guy didn’t even jump! What a waste of my time!!” After hearing this, I couldn’t decide which was more horrific: that a guy was actually ready to kill himself or that another guy was disappointed the man hadn’t jumped. What has become of our world today that a real, live man ready to kill himself is taken so lightly like it was just a stunt for another show? I hate to think how many other people had the same exact thought as that man. Or even worse, how many people stood and watched, waiting for him to jump instead of hoping he could be convinced otherwise. What convinces people that the only answer to life’s problems or unhappiness is death? Life and death are definite like a yes or a no. But our culture has treated it so lightly because it makes for good show. Unfortunately, people forget that it is all for show which isn’t that surprising. Movies and shows today try to get as close to realistic scenarios as they can. So when people are constantly watching “real life” situations, they think everything they see is normal, but suicides, cutting, murder, and rape should not be cast under “normal.”

We’re given so many options so we can diagnose ourselves. If you’re not happy I guess you’re depressed instead of just feeling temporarily low. If you can’t fit into such-and-such size, you’re fat. Or, we worry too much about our lives, especially now when getting a job is so hard. We mess around too much with our lives instead of giving all control to the One who gave us this life. He gave us life, He should be the one to take it away…not you. As long as we’ve got Christ in the center of our lives and look to Him for everything, we shouldn’t have to worry about every day. He will provide.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more cloth you, O you of little faith?” “…Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” ~ Matthew 6:25-31,34