Suicide's aftermath

If you've ever watched M*A*S*H, you have heard the music. If you've seen the movie, you've heard the lyrics. As the chopper breaks over the mountain, the guitar licks to "Suicide is Painless" introduce the show, but lyricist Mike Altmann (son of the movie's director, Robert Altmann) had it horribly wrong. Suicide is anything but painless.

I can think of little save divorce and tornadoes that leaves such a wake of unforeseen destruction and devastation.

Eleven years ago this March, I picked up the phone and heard my friend Lou choke out words no man should have to form. Our friend, Kevin, had taken his life. How do you respond when all the oxygen gets sucked from the room? What do you say when your brain crashes to a standstill?

As a Christ-follower, I could do nothing but cling to him. I held fast to his unwavering word when all the world had become in an instant as heaving as the Bering Sea. More than a decade later, I still do not understand. I still see and feel the effects of that decision that changed so much for so many.

I have long been a fan of the Newsboys. I particularly like their work that has Steve Taylor's fingerprints upon it. You might not know Steve; most don't. He's a singer in his own right and is a fantastic producer and song writer. He wrote a song that the Newsboys cut on their Going Public CD titled Elle G. It's a song about a guy trying to come to terms with a Christian friend of his who has taken their own life. He finds no tidy answers, and in the end, he's left to cling to the garments of God.

I found it a comfort in the painful days following my friend's suicide. Perhaps you will, too.