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Comedian Joan Rivers thought she had nothing left to live for. Her husband had committed suicide, her talk show had been cancelled, and her daughter wasn’t talking to her. At one point, she decided to commit suicide herself. She didn’t, instead she started lecturing on suicide prevention. She tells people,…

When our lives drift away from a focus on God our lives pay the price by ending in a time, place and manner that we never intended. In March of 2015, a plane crashed in the German Alps. It seems that the Co-Pilot intentionally switched the autopilot on the doomed Germanwings plane to descend to 100 feet.…

In early 2008, Jonny Benjamin was 20 years-old and had just been diagnosed with a debilitating mental disorder. He had dropped out of school and there was little chance that he would ever be able to hold down a job or have a family. His response was to climb out on a bridge and end it all. Just as he…

Analysts say that the prolonged economic downturn is having a negative effect on the suicide rates in our country. The Centers for Disease Control announced that suicides among Americans 35 to 64 have jumped 30 percent since 1999. The biggest jump is 49 percent and affects men from 50 to 54. The figures…

In his book, Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make you Happier, Robert Emmons writes, “Hopelessness and despair can adversely impact the endocrine and immune systems, even hastening death. Conversely, being an optimist may help reduce your risk of dying from heart disease and other causes. A thirty-five-year…

Andrew Lloyd-Webber was suffering intense pain in his leg. Fourteen surgical interventions left him in such agony he wanted to die. In his own words he said, “I went through a moment of deep depression—that awful moment when you think you must find a way out.” From there he descended to contemplating…

On November 11, 2016, many users logged onto Facebook only to find out they were dead. A message at the top of their Facebook page read, “We hope people who love [insert name here] will find comfort in things others share to remember and celebrate [his/her] life.” Some users went to twitter to show that…

In Washington State, Vermont, Oregon, and Montana it is legal to for a physician to assist a patient commit suicide. Under this law, 83 Washingtonians died in 2012. When a person despairs to the point of having no hope suicide can look like a reasonable solution. Grace calls us rely on the sufficiency…

About 37,000 Americans end their own lives each year. This is more than die each year in car crashes. Safety improvements have cut the death toll of car crashes by 25% but suicides have kept rising. No government safety program can stop the devastation of a life hungry for meaning or lost in depression…

When a person is suffering from depression, there are times when they just can’t make their body do anything, even if they know a little exercise would be the best thing. Paige Waehner says she has helped a lot of people find the motivation to exercise, but admits that depression is especially hard to…

There is a growing trend of hopelessness, especially among the Baby Boomer generation. Mental health experts say that job loss, foreclosures, and the pressures of caring for aging parents and difficult teenagers are causing an increasing number of them to commit suicide. Between 1999 and 2010 the rate…

A new study concludes regular attendance at religious services is associated with a more optimistic outlook and a lower likelihood of suffering from depression. The new results support other findings suggesting participation in religious worship and activities promotes psychological and physical health.…

The Centers for Disease Control recently released startling new information about depression in America. The CDC says roughly one in ten Americans suffers from some degree of the affliction. Though the standard of living has continued to go up, the rate of depression have also risen over the past several…

Until the time of our death, we live, sometimes even if we don’t want to. Vangelis Kapatos, a 26-year-old New York City man, decided he didn’t want to live anymore. He jumped from a ninth-story window to kill himself. It must not have been his time. He landed on his back in a pile of uncollected garbage…

Vangelis Kapatos, a 26 year old New York City man, decided he didn’t want to live anymore. He jumped from a ninth-story window to kill himself. It must not have been his time. He landed on his back in a pile of uncollected garbage bags. The trash bags responsible for saving his life, were piled much…

“I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.” that’s what Ernest Hemingway said of his life. How could that be? He was known for his tough-guy image and globe-trotting pilgrimages to exotic places. He was a big-game hunter, a…

HOPELESSNESS What do you do when life totally falls in on you? With no money, no car, no place to live, and no way to care for her little boy, Tiffany Toribio chose the dark path. She placed her hand over her 3-year-old son’s mouth and suffocated him, twice. The first time she performed CPR to restore…

The gunman in a deadly shooting spree at a Pittsburgh-area gym says in Internet videos he posted that he routinely hid his feelings, struggled to "emotionally connect" with people and read books on how to date young women. The two undated videos, apparently recorded by 48-year-old George Sodini, surfaced…

Research shows that “anxiety, depression, and other mental-health issues are far more prevalent among youth today than during the Great Depression.” The increase is dramatic. “On average, five times as many students in 2007 reported signs of mental illness than did those in 1938.” The reasons given for…

SALVATION The 2008 housing market crisis devastated many homeowners making their mortgages impossible to pay. When the FDIC took control of Indy Mac Bank, a California savings and loan institution, they took steps to help troubled homeowners by lowering interest rates and offering loan extensions up…

TERRORISM/HOPE I've found myself reliving the events of 9-11 over and over. I don't need to see a video tape of the planes crashing into the twin towers, I've seen it so many times that all I have to do is close my eyes and I can see it again. I'm sure this is partly because of the horrific nature of…

Reunion By the time we graduated from High School, most of my close friends had an idea what we wanted to do with our lives. Some wanted to get jobs and go to work, others shipped off to college with a specific occupation in mind, but there were a few that didn't have a clue. It was fun to go to our…

Hope What's left when everything else is stripped away? At the end of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says there are three remaining things: faith, hope and love. Paul uses those three words in one verse in three other places. To him, they were the triumverant of the Christian virtues. Though intertwined, Paul…

Hope "Pastor, there is a man that wants to see you, can you spare a minute." The truth was, I couldn't spare any time, but knew I was trapped. "Sure, show him to the conference room, I'll be there in a minute." On the way down the hall I was preparing my best "We can give you food but can't give you…

EVIL Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico says he wants to renovate one the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state. Locals call the highway the “Highway to Hell.” Richardson wants to change the number of the route, which is officially known as Highway 666, because of the association of the…