Good morning…
“That ‘letter’ is very well done,” one of you wrote to me after yesterday’s post, Someone You Know Needs This. “What many people don’t understand is that the sadness is also a liar. And a really good liar. And the sadness will surely tell the person it is living in that all of those people would be much, much better off without him or her. That really suicide would be doing them all a favor. And because the sadness has seeped into every nook and crevice of that person’s being, he or she will believe that lie, truly and wholeheartedly believe it. And there is no bigger or more dangerous lie. The thing I would add to the letter is: don’t believe the sadness, whatever it tells you. Your family needs you, loves you, and wants you to live… desperately. Don’t let them down.”
I wrote her back, marveling at the beautiful honesty of her raw, real words, asking if I could share her wisdom anonymously with our readers. She agreed, and sent me this extra insight: “This wisdom was hard won, sadly. I remember what helped save my life. When I was saturated by sadness, I remembered the recent devastation of a friend of my sister’s committing suicide. And even in my haze of depression, I could remember how angry I was (not at her but at the disease). I was angry that she had believed that ugly lie, which she must have done for her to leave two lovely teenaged boys. And while I couldn’t see it about myself that day, something in my brain remembered knowing, somehow, that the thought that everyone would be better off without me just wasn’t right, because it hadn’t been true about her (if that makes sense). Knowing deep down that this sadness was a liar allowed me to reach out to someone and save my life.”
She concluded her heartfelt email: “That was two summers ago. It’s so easy to see when you aren’t in it. But very hard to see when you are, when you are steeped in sadness. And I just wish that every person who was left behind after a suicide would know that the person didn’t leave because they didn’t love them, but often because they did love them and that this sad disease is a terrible liar.”
Recognizing “sadness” as a thief, a tool of God’s enemy, the father of lies, Jesus says, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]” (John 10:10, AMP).
…Sue…
