People think this is about economics, joblessness, mental patients,
bipolar disorders...  which are partly true.  Mostly, it's people in
dire straights.  They say rich people are some of the most miserable
on this planet.
  But when it comes to suicide, it has more to do with George Baily
in "It's a Wonderful Life."  In the very beginning of the movie,
two stars are talking.  "What's his problem; x,y or z?"
"No, it's worse," replies the other star, "he sees no hope."
   And that, I think, is the crux of the problem.

I thought of writing about this when I saw the cover of
Philadelphia WEEKLY Volume XXXIX No. 40 October 4,2000
   www.philadelphiaweekly.com (don't know if the archive)
On page 16 there article appears written by Liz Spikol
I'll pass along some of her stats in the article, and then include
some hopeful stuff from Wayne Monbleua called "Arise and Eat."
   www.lovinggrace.org

In the Philadelphia WEEKLY, Liz Spikol starts with a story from her
youth - of walking with her father and sister to come upon a person
who leaped 16 floors to their death.
page 18:
   "Since Michael  Green's death in 1978,
  suicide rates have risen sharply.  It is
  now considered such a serious health
  problem that the Surgeon General last
year issued a report called Call to Action to Pre-
vent Suicide.  In the report, he writes, "Suicide
is a serious public health problem.  In 1996...
suicide was the ninth-leading cause of mor-
tality in the United States, responsible for
nearly 31,000 deaths.  This number is more
than 50 percent higher than the number of
homicides in the same year."
   On average, 85 Americans die from suicide
each day.  Those attempting suicide are over-
whelmingly female, but those who succeed in
killing themselves are overwhelmingly male.
While women tend to attempt suicide by
poison, men generally use guns, which are,
for obvious reasons, more often fatal.  In fact,
firearms are the most common means of
suicide among men and women, accounting
for 59 percent of all suicide deaths.
   As it turns out, Michael Green was not,
demographically, part of the rise in the
suicide rate.  Though 22, he was almost too
old for the most alarming numbers for young
people.  Consider these statistics from the
Surgeon General's report:
   From 1980 to 1996, the rate of suicide
among persons aged 15 to 19 years increased
by 14 percent and doubled among persons age
10 to 14.
   Among persons aged 15 to 19 years,
firearms-related suicides accounted for 96
percent of the increase in the rate of suicide
since 1980.
   For young people 15 to 24 years old,
suicide is currently the third-leading cause of
death.  More teenagers and young adults die
from suicide than from cancer, heart disease,
AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and
influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.
   Suicide is currently the fourth-leading cause
of death among children between the ages of
10 and 14.
   For those 65 and older, the numbers
are also disturbing.  In 1999, the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) released a report that said
between 1980 and 1992, the numbers of
suicides among those 65 and older
increased 36 percent.  Especially vul-
nerable, it seems, are elderly males, who
account for 81 percent of all suicides.
Depression an disability are two
important contributing factors to the
suicide climb among seniors."
end of quote.
And the article goes on - and it is rather long, as there is
a lot to talk about on the subject, and Liz is well acquainted
with her topic.

And now, from Wayne - Arise and Eat - the first two sections.
The whole pamphlet is about a ten minute read and very encouraging.
It can be obtained from Loving Grace Ministries PO Box 500
Lafayette, NJ 07848

             ARISE AND EAT

  Gaining A New Purpose & Desire For Life
              by Wayne Monbleau

   Have you ever had a time in your life when you
wanted to die?
   One of the unfortunate things about being Chris-
tian is that sometimes you're made to feel certain
emotions are not acceptable.  If you're a naturally joyful,
happy, peaceful person, that's spiritual.  Well, what if
you're not any of these things?  Does this mean you're
not spiritual?
   Elijah, that great Old Testament prophet, reached a
point during his ministry where he wanted to die (1
Kings 19:4).  Jonah reached a point where he wanted
to die (Jonah 4:3).  Paul reached a point where he wanted
to die (2 Corinthians 1:8).  This tells me something: that
you can love God along with the best of them and still
have a setback in your life so complete that all desire
for living is completely removed from you.
   There are those who say it is wrong for a Christian
to feel depressed, but I think that opinion is irrelevant.
Look, if you're so emotionally beat up that you're ac-
tually asking for death, no amount of people telling you
it's wrong to feel that way will change anything.  In fact,
the more you are told it's wrong to feel this way, the
worse you're going to feel.  Now, in addition to being
in despair, you'll also feel that you're letting down the
Lord, your brothers and sisters, and the rest of the
universe.  The more people tell you how you should feel,
the more your pit just gets deeper and deeper.
   I believe I can show you a way out of that pit.  I want
to share with you how our Great God of Love
ministered to Elijah in his own time of utter despair.

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE DAYS

   In the eighteenth chapter of 1st Kings, Elijah was
probably at the most powerful point in his life.  He had
just had a head to head confrontation with wicked King
Ahab of Israel concerning his pagan prophets of Baal.
In a contest with Elijah, King Ahab's prophets sang,
shouted, danced and afflicted themselves all day long
trying to get their god, Baal, to come and consume their
sacrifice with fire.  It didn't happen.  But when Elijah built
his altar and even drenched it with water, the Lord God
of Israel triumphantly came down and consumed with fire
his sacrifice.  In that emotional high point, the people were
at a fever pitch and fell upon the prophets of Baal, slaying
them all.  What an incredible day of power!
   King Ahab gave the bad news of the days' events to
his, even more wicked wife, Queen Jezebel.  Together
these two had tried to exterminate all the true prophets
of the living God from the land simply because they
didn't like what they were saying.  In response to this
unexpected defeat, Queen Jezebel sent the following
message to Elijah: "So may the gods do to me and even
more if I do not make your life as the life of one of
them by tomorrow about this time.:  In other words,
Jezebel was declaring, "Elijah, you've got about 24 hours
to live."
   What a startling change of events!  In less than twenty-
four hours Elijah's pinnacle of victory was turned into
a death sentence.
   Regardless of how we think it should be, here's how
life really is: we can have our best day ever in Jesus
Christ and the next day have our worst.  I'm so glad
to know we have a good and powerful God Who
ministers to us in the real rough and tumble of life.
Many times we make out own reality absolutely
miserable because we attempt to live on the basis of
theory.  Our theories usually deny the existence of real
problems or the offer some quick prayer-and-
confession-fix.  As a result, when trouble comes knock-
in on our door, we don't know how to deal with it
because we assume, if we're living as good Christians,
we theoretically should not be in trouble.
   The Apostle Peter is a classic case in point of how
your best day can become your worst day in the blink
of an eye.  Remember when Peter declared, "Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living god."?  Jesus replied,
"Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, but my father Who
is in heaven" (Matthew 16:16,17).  Now drop down a
few lines in your Bible to where Jesus told His disciples
He was going to Jerusalem and there He would die.
Peter responded by crying out "God forbid it, Lord!
This shall never happen to You."  Jesus then declared
to "blessed" Peter, "Get behind me, satan (Verses
21-23).  Peter went from being commended by Jesus to
being rebuked by Jesus for being in league with the
devil, all in the space of a few short lines.
   That's the way it happened to Peter and sometimes
that's the way life happens to us.  One moment we can
be on the mountain top, thanking God for all His bless-
ings.  Then, in a flash, life can turn on us so badly that
we are unable to see any blessing or reason for living
at all.
   There are so many ways this can happen to us.  First
of all, of course, we have an enemy, the devil.  You bet-
ter believe he'll try his worst to work you over and,
oddly enough, it's often on the heels of some big
breakthrough or blessing that we are the most
vulnerable to his evil attacks.  Perhaps we're riding high
on a big victory and we let out guard down.  Maybe
we're becoming puffed up and the blessing we just
received needs to be met with a lesson in humility.
Sometimes it's the mercy of God that sticks out the
Almighty Foot sending us sprawling into next week,
so we can once more walk humbly and be directed back
to Jesus.
   Here's Elijah, absolutely thrilled with this fantastic
victory over the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel says, by
this time tomorrow she will have him killed.  I'm sure
some people would say, "After what Elijah just witnessed,
he'll just shake this threat right off."  Right?  Wrong.
   Do you recall what James wrote in the fifth chapter
of his letter?  He said, "Elijah was a man with a nature
like ours (verse 17).  In other words, Elijah was a regular
person.  He wasn't some super-saint, always walking
three feet off the ground.  I believe the sooner we give
up this idea of super-saints, the better off we are going
to be.  Regardless of what you think Elijah should have
done, the Scripture says when he heard about Jezebel's
vow, "He was afraid and arose and ran for his life"
(1 Kings 19:3)
For the rest of the encouraging story - get the pamphlet.
(sorry, it's not my story)