When you get sick, one of the first questions you ask the doctor is “when will I will be better?”

After a tragedy occurs, there is a point in which restitution is expected, a point at which an “end” is reached: the check arrives, the new house is moved into, the perpetrator goes to jail.

This looking to an end shows it’s in our nature to desire closure.

We all want a happy ending. But this broken world has proven time after time that we might not get a happy ending- and we don’t like that!

Even as Christians, we tend to dismiss the idea of leaving loose ends, never receiving that apology or forgiveness, or accepting that some actions will never be made right.

In a way, that’s wrong. In another way, it’s very right.

God doesn't promise happy endings in (this) lifetime.
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God never says we’ll get our desired explanations for why an illness is both chronic and untreatable, or why a crime goes unsolved. Or why the wicked prosper. Or why the steadfast suffer needlessly. Or why hurricanes wipe out whole countries.

But we’re still to have faith.

“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised” Hebrews 11:39

Moses died without entering the promised land. Isaiah died without watching the Savior who he so often spoke of. There were many others who didn’t meet happy endings – like the disciples, who were martyred!

Yet like these heroes of the faith, you and I can face the many unclosed doors, loose threads, and “never-seem-to-ends” of life by faith.

We can place our hope in the one “happily ever after” that we can count on: Christ’s.

We can place our hope in the one “happily ever after” that we can count on: Christ’s.
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That’s where we get it right when we remind those hurting, suffering, and struggling with closure that it will come and it will be okay. Maybe not now. Possibly (in some cases probably) not even on this earth. But looking toward the “the end” of eternity, we can humbly live out Psalm 131:

“My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.”

Humbly, without closure, we can accept that we don’t need a resolution to live by faith. We can recognize that some things are bigger than we can understand –and that includes the “how” and “when” of God working all things wonderfully for good.

Our hope isn’t in a chance of circumstance, an answer, or any other “ending.”

“Have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf” Hebrews 6:19-20

Our hope can be in the Lord now –even without closure- and in the forevermore –in which all is made right.

{A version of this post was previously published here}

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The picture depicted an old, burned-out mountain shack. After the fire, the family’s sole possession was destroyed, and the picture shows that only the chimney remained standing. In front of the devastated home stood an old man, dressed in his underclothes, with a small boy by his side. It was evident by the boy’s distressed face that he had been crying. At the bottom of the painting, the artist added a caption with the words he believed the old man was saying to the boy. This simple sentence described the man’s faith and hope for the future, despite his dire circumstances:

“Hush child, God ain’t dead!”

DeLoach recounts his reaction to the painting: “That vivid picture of the burned-out mountain shack, that old man, the weeping child, and those words ‘God ain’t dead’ keep returning to my mind. Instead of it being a reminder of the despair of life, it has come to be a reminder of hope! I need reminders that there is hope in this world. In the midst of all of life’s troubles and failures, I need mental pictures to remind me that all is not lost, as long as God is alive and in control of his world.”

I thought about this story after a conversation I had with my oldest daughter, regarding the increase of suicide among young girls. She was troubled by the number of teenagers and young adults she encounters, who bear scars in their arms and wrists, evidence of their profound despair and hopelessness.

The conversation prompted me to do some research on the stats of suicide in America.

According to a report released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2015, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming the lives of almost 45,000 Americans every year. Furthermore, after a steady decline in the ’80s and ’90s, statistics now show that the suicide rate has increased steadily in the past several years, with one group standing out — girls between the ages of 10 and 14. Although they make a small portion of the total of suicides, the rate for this group has increased more than any other, tripling over 15 years from 0.5 to 1.7 per 100,000 people.

Hopelessness is the feeling at the center of each suicide attempt. Despaired souls look at their past and present, and lose the faith to believe that there can be a better, brighter future. Their hearts become anchored in the bleakness of current circumstances, and thus death seems to be the only answer to end their agony. They leave behind baffled family members, who were often clueless of the measure of their pain.

To most of us, the idea is unthinkable — suicide does not even cross our minds. But as a new year begins, I can’t help but wonder how many of us feel hopeless, nevertheless. We look at the year that passed, realizing that our problems have not ended with the old year. Addictions were not overcome. The job offer was not extended. Marriages were not improved. Prodigal children are yet to come home.

We may even become cynical toward God, secretly doubting the words that our lips proclaim at church. “There is no way that this situation will work out for my good,” we may say to ourselves.

But the old man in the picture reminds me of a truth that has been tested and proven in my own life, each time that outwardly hopeless circumstances threatened to steal my future, and every time I chose, against all odds, to trust and believe: So long as there is a God in heaven, there is hope for his creation.

Indeed, this belief has sustained my soul through many a trial: If only we can give God one more day, seek his help and the help of those around us; if only we can remind our hearts that “God ain’t dead,” he is faithful to lift our lives from the ashes, or sustain us until the storm passes by.

This article was originally published on Patricia Holbrook’s column for The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) on Saturday – January 6, 2018.

#Hopelessness and the increasing #suicide rate in America - A reflection for the New Year
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The post Hopelessness & the Increasing Suicide Rate {The Atlanta Journal Constitution} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.