There isn’t an easy way to talk about suicide. There are so many things I would want to say to anyone struggling and I don’t know what to say first. This is my heart for anyone who doesn’t want to be here anymore.

You can easily say it gets better, and maybe some days it does. But there is also a truth that sometimes circumstances don’t get better. Sometimes it gets harder or lonelier or uglier. Waiting for things to get better isn’t always a reason to stay.

Just because we aren’t promised things will get better doesn’t mean you need to leave.

Often when people no longer want to be here it is because they don’t feel like they can take the pain any longer. There is a level of hopelessness that is very real. For as real as that pain is, there is truth that can combat it.

There is truth in thinking that the world is a better place because you are here. Especially as Christians, if we believe God does not make mistakes, then He created you for a reason. He looked at the world and said that making you was good. I am not attempting to dive into our nature of depravity, but I want to emphasize that He created you, and that wasn’t a mistake.

Another truth: there is a reason for what you are going through. It isn’t hard to look at the world and see how broken it is. Sin causes horrible things. Those broken things you are experiencing aren’t because God doesn’t care, it’s because the world we live in is corrupt. Hard truth: anything we experience that isn’t wicked is out of His mercy. The horrors that lead us to question Him are what we all deserve, it is out of His compassion that we are spared so much. I know saying that is hard to hear. I promise I have faced some truly horrible consequences of sin in this world in my own story. I’d love to dive into that more another time, but I want you to know that I don’t say that as someone who hasn’t known trauma. While this world is objectively broken, God still uses that brokenness. We are created to bring Him glory.

Sometimes bringing Him glory means living a beautiful life for Him.

Sometimes bringing Him glory means walking through struggles and then seeing His redemption play out in your life.

Sometimes bringing Him glory means walking through struggles without seeing the purpose but still being willing to say He is good.

We don’t get to decide what bringing God glory looks like in our own lives.

I know that still doesn’t make the pain go away. Please don’t read my words and think I am minimizing the pain you are experiencing. I write those words because the only hope that can sustain you is having a relationship with Christ. Not just the once-a-week consideration of Him (which I have been guilty of at stages of in my own life), but genuine running to Him.

When we are living for anything other than to better know God, we will always be left empty.