It's Not Just You

"No one understands." "I'm all alone." "I can't tell anyone what I'm thinking."

  These are lies! The truth is more people than you might think are filled with guilt or shame and think about or seriously consider suicide. Since 2015, almost every time I meet someone new, they mention to me about someone they have lost to suicide. This is in no way an exaggeration. It is like I have, “tell me who you have lost to suicide” written across my forehead. More often than not, the person you are behind in the checkout line, or sitting next to you at the restaurant, or even someone you know quite well, has either lost someone they love to suicide, or at one point considered it themselves as a way out.

       The stigma with suicide is that we should not talk about it. The reasons may differ as to why not, whether it be the shame and/or guilt carried by those that were left behind, or not wanting to stain someone’s life by their last decision, but either way, it most definitely SHOULD be talked about. The more we keep it a secret the more the enemy wins convincing us with the lies stated above.

       One day I was watching a TV show and the girl asked her grandmother, “What’s wrong?” and the grandmother wouldn’t tell her. Then the girl said, “When it’s stuck in your head it is really, really big. But when you say it out loud it gets smaller.” Man, did that resonate with me! Isn’t that the truth? How many times has something felt so huge to us the more we kept it inside, but once we said it aloud and finally cried it out, we felt so much better about the situation?

       I am convinced that is why the enemy tells us not to talk about it. “You shouldn’t tell anyone because no one will understand. They will think less of you, and let’s face it, you already think less of yourself enough as it is.” The enemy wants you to keep it to yourself because he knows it will grow and grow, the more that we keep it inside. The more we keep it in, the more it can spiral out of control. 

The fact is that if we would tell someone we trust, we could give them the chance to help us rationalize through it, which would make all the difference. When we do not hide the fact that we have lost loved ones to suicide it helps others know they can talk about their losses, thoughts, or feelings with us!

       Let’s go back to the word… what does it have to say about it? The Word tells us in Revelation 12:11 that we OVERCOME the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb (Yeshua), by the WORD of our testimony, and by not loving our lives so much that we are afraid of death. Sharing our testimony is a powerful way that we defeat the enemy. When we tell others what we have been through, how the enemy tried to take us out, failed, and how Yeshua saved us… they are encouraged and empowered to fight the enemy in their situation as well. That is my goal for all who read this book! It all goes back to Yeshua our Savior, our Abba Father, and the Holy Spirit that gives us the power! Elohim!

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8