God & Suicide

[Gregory Matthews]

 

“A Celebration of Life” – This phrase is above the photo of a smiling young man with pulled-back hair parted in the middle, wearing dark-framed glasses. He is shown wearing a moderately-heavy jacket over a white tee shirt. A closer look leads the eye to note the small, oblong-shaped earring that hangs a quarter of an inch below his left earlobe. His sideburns are cut sharply off at a point some half inch above the lowest portion of the ring. He is smooth shaven save for a small “tickler” under his lower lip. The first impression is that this is a warm, friendly open guy who enjoys life. If one read no further, that is the way it would be. The words printed under the picture change everything.
               Mark Christian Ashworth
           August 28, 1967 – April 10, 2014
           Pacific Union College Church
                   Angwin, California
               Sunday, April 27, 2014
 
April 10, 2014, is the day Mark took his life.^[1]
 
            Suicide is the ultimate statement one can make that he or she is dissatisfied with some aspect of his or her life. Suicide is the last desperate attempt to make a statement that when done ends debate. Those who survive are left to deal with the remorse, the loss, the questions.
           

   For a parent, family members and others close to the one who has chosen to end life by suicide, the act defies one’s ability to comprehend. Logic fails. The deepest stirrings of the soul are violated, and we are left to struggle with a closure that will not close. The mind will not allow a final placement; a border that will hold the event in check. Our inclination is to push back, repress, ignore and talk around. “It was a sudden, unexpected death.” Mark’s memorial service did not fall within this tradition. The family made it clear: their son; their brother; their friend took his life. They made it clear to us that they wished to acknowledge the reality of this act and the life-choices that had a powerful effect on Mark’s life. (Disclosure: Carolyn Ashworth, Mark’s mother, is my wife’s cousin. I did not know Mark. When he was a pre-teen, we may have casually met on one or two occasions. Warren Ashworth, Mark’s father, was for many years a member of the PUC religion faculty.)
           
            The family members recognized that for Mark, their return to the United States from Argentina, where the parents had been in mission service, was traumatic. Mark became less willing to fit into anyone’s mold. He was a free spirit. He enjoyed music, art, and dance. He had his core of friends, but this core did not always include family.

  At some point in his high school years, Mark began to experiment with various mind-altering substances. In his early twenties, he broke away from his roots and set out on a journey that would take him and a “soul mate” about the United States in a VW squareback decorated with technicolored art and unique statements. His life-journey would eventually take him to Talkeetna, Alaska. Here he found a community that accepted him as he was and allowed him to struggle with his demons. His substance abuse became more pronounced, his estrangement from family more pronounced. He stayed in Alaska most of 19 years. In August of 2013 Mark called his parents and asked if he could come home. The family welcomed him, so grateful to have him home. It soon became apparent to the family that Mark was struggling with a deepening depression. Consultations with medical professionals informed the parents that Mark’s frontal lobe was not working well and many of his neurotransmitters were destroyed. Perhaps in two to four years, the medical personnel opined, he might see things more clearly. Until that time, the remedies of choice were prescribed medications combined with acceptance, patience, support and love. And so it was, until the day Mark’s sister found him in his parent’s home.
           
            The family might well have done as others who have known the shock and embarrassment of a child or family member who has chosen suicide. The Ashworths chose an alternate. They asked an Adventist minister, Pastor O. Kris Widmer, to conduct the memorial service. The family knew that he had addressed suicide in a Sabbath sermon. They requested that he share his personal and biblical insights on the subject of suicide and that he describe what people should look for that indicates a person may be considering suicide. In his homily, Pastor Widmer addressed questions that are raised when suicide occurs: Is suicide the one unpardonable sin? No, said the pastor. He gave powerful expression to the biblical hope that is essential to the Christian faith and gave assurance, based on St. Paul’s statements, that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God. And “nothing” includes suicide.

 

[The above has been extracted from a longer article that was written by Larry Downing on May 28, 2014, and published in Adventist Today.  You may access the entire article from the following link.]

https://atoday.org/a-death-like-no-other/ 

The additional material contained in the article above address the various views as to what the Bible is thought to say on this subject.    In addition, it speaks to family issues.  It is well worth reading.

The link below will take you to the Memorial service, at Pacific Union College, conducted for Mark Christian Ashworth, who died on April 10, 2014

https://livestream.com/pucchurch/markashworth/videos/49291765

 

[Iryna_Flower]

2 days ago a friend of mine have fallen from 8th floor in Moscow. Few hours later I have been told it was a suicide.

 

He have never wanted to come with me to church...

[Gregory Matthews]

One does not know what is in the mind of a person at their death.  All we know for certain is that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work for their salvation.  The Biblical example is found at the Cross.  Two criminals were at the point of their death.  One responded to the HS, and will spend eternity with God.  The other exercised his choice to refuse the offer and to cease to exist.

God is good.  The Holy Spirit works forever to bring us to salvation.  It is only our free choice that keeps us from spending eternity with God.