The most difficult and dark topics in life are often those we don’t discuss. Sadly, our silence around the parts of life that are hardest to live through sometimes lead us further into the darkness. Recently, there have been several high-profile deaths by suicide, including designer/entrepreneur Kate Spade and writer/chef Anthony Bourdain. These two celebrities possessed the implied fame, fortune and opportunities, yet each dealt with pain in private ways. Ms. Spade appeared to live a relatively clean-cut life filled with brightness and whimsy alongside a fast-track career. Mr. Bourdain seemed to live a harder life than she with transparency about his drug use, anger issues as a teen and a wandering career.

Numbers are on the rise

In June the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a study detailing the rise of deaths by suicide in the United States over the past 15 to 20 years. A primary reason for suicide — though sometimes also a scapegoat for it — is the presence of mental-health disorders and illnesses. While a significant number of suicides do involve people with previously diagnosed conditions, many are attributed to outside factors such as changes in relationship or job status, money or legal stress, or physical illness. We often do not know all the reasons why someone believes his or her life no longer has value or that the lives of those around them and the world itself would be better off without her or him.

Isolation and despair

The increasing separation of people from one another as a result of the constant use of technology, as well as the negativity that is often spewed across social media through ranting and bullying, can exacerbate already painful lives. Machinery has infiltrated human relationships at least since the industrial revolution a hundred years ago when communities of people became factory workers and spent their days in the midst of whirring assembly lines. Still, we should remember and cling to the promise that the One who created us is always with us, no matter if we are lost in a group or alone and scared. God gives us hope.

Question of the day: When did you feel the most alone?
Focal scriptures: Genesis 1:1-31; John 12:27-36; Acts 19:1-6

For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC.