Suicide: The Devil's Final Trap

“Well, here I am. What people think is their last resort. I’m the baddest of the bad. The worst of the worst. My name is Suicide. If I wasn’t being forced to tell you about me, I’d keep my mouth shut and you in the dark. That way even you might one day entertain me as an option. But once you know the truth, I’ll be exposed for what I am—the devil’s deadliest tool.

“You’ve met my cousins Pain, Worry, Grief and Depression. They think they’re better than me. As bad as they are, they act like I’m a monster and don’t let me get too close. That’s okay. I still use them to trap my victims. You humans might survive those other four, but not me. With them, you can still find God’s help and strength to carry on, and be a testimony to others—even in your sufferings. But try me—buy me—Suicide, and there’s no going back. Gotcha! Satan calls it luring you out of the frying pan, into the fire. Literally!

“Our victims are many. Young and old. Educated and simple. Men and women. Students and teachers. Dads, moms, sons, daughters. The old woman who hung herself after leaving a note saying, ‘I’m so lonely.’ The cancer victim who was tired of suffering. The teenagers who made a suicide pact and followed through. The politician caught in a scandal, who killed himself rather than be humiliated. The athlete who was over the hill and chose death—me, Suicide—rather than life without the glory. Another teen who was bullied and embarrassed by her peers on the Internet. The parent distraught over the death of a child. You get the point. Why go on with my endless list of victims?!

“But I, Suicide, the deadly enemy of desperate humans, also have an enemy. My enemy is the one who calls Himself Love—yes, God. And the One who walked on this planet and gave His life so that you humans could be set free from sin and the devil’s lies and experience the awesome power of His love in your lives.¹

“I told you in the beginning that I would do what I never do—tell you the truth—just this once. So here it is. The one who uses me—the devil—came to kill, steal and destroy.² Your Creator came to give you abundant life that never ends.³The dark voice tells you there is no God and that you are only the protoplasm and psychoplasm of evolution with no purpose or value.⁴ The voice of light—Jesus—says you have an eternal purpose and incalculable value.

“The dark voice lies that you own yourself and can take your life whenever you want. That other voice of your Maker tells you that you’re not your own because He bought you with His love and wants you to live until He calls you to His home.⁵

“The dark and panicky thought from Satan insists that your life is now meaningless and should end at your hand. The voice of your Designer—your awesome God—whispers that your life has meaning and that He who gave it should be the One who determines your final physical breath.

“Oh you blind humans. So many of you who take me, Suicide, as your way out buy the lie that if there was a God, things would be easier. Well, there is a God, and things are never easy. He never told you they would be.⁶ My evil boss—you know who—didn’t make it easy on Jesus. Will you ever get it? Look what Jesus went through. He was tempted in all points as you humans.⁷ All points? Even the temptation to end His sufferings and His life? Even I, Suicide, couldn’t seduce Him. And now He offers all He is and all He has to you!⁸ The Creator of the universe loves little old you!

“Wake up, human. If God gets you, I don’t. Reject Him today and you just might accept me some day. If you reject Christ and I, Suicide, win, you end your life on earth and begin it again in hell. Whether you believe it or not. And, maybe even worse, you leave your loved ones with the stigma of suicide and some family and friends who might decide to follow your tragic example.

“But if Jesus wins, I lose. For no matter what you go through, you have His promise (yes, from God who cannot lie)⁹that He will not leave you comfortless.¹⁰ And He guarantees you a peace that will settle in your heart and head and that no storms of life or lies of the devil can overcome.¹¹

“So there. Just this once, I’ve told it like it is. Choose me, Suicide, and you lose—immediately and for eternity. A very poor choice. Choose the awesome Son of God and you win—His presence now, and together with Him forever.¹²A very wise choice indeed. Cousins Pain, Worry, Grief and Depression will no doubt test, tempt and try you all through your brief time on earth. But me, Suicide—don’t even think about it! If you do…Time for me to go. Because here He comes, Jesus, with His arms wide open for guess who? Yes, you!”

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras