{"id":44521,"date":"2013-05-13T10:54:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T17:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=44521"},"modified":"2014-12-29T23:14:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T06:14:57","slug":"for-anybody-who-has-ever-considered-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2013\/05\/for-anybody-who-has-ever-considered-suicide.html","title":{"rendered":"For Anybody Who has Ever Considered Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Don\u2019t.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2323468\/Kevin-Berthia-Emotional-reunion-suicidal-man-hero-police-officer-Kevin-Briggs-talked-Golden-Gate-Bridge.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">It gets better.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>God bless Kevin Briggs.<\/p>\n<p>FWIW, in February 1977, I was pretty close to where Kevin Berthia was.  No hope in my life.  Without God in the world.  Deeply lonely and, worse, with no idea that there was any hope or love, in a universe I was taught had spat me out by accident and, after an indeterminate time, would smash me like a bug in the hurly burly of its randomness.<\/p>\n<p>It would be several years before I met Christ and found out that at the core of the world was joy.  It would be years after that before I plucked up the courage to believe that.  And it\u2019s take 25 years of therapy from the sacraments to really begin making the habitual choice to live as though that\u2019s true (something I still suck at).<\/p>\n<p>But what saved me from death back then was theatre.  I auditioned for a play at Everett Community College and found friendship, the ability to do something I liked and was good at, and a new lease on life.  It was ultimately only a way station on the journey of course.  But I learned that there was hope. <\/p>\n<p>If you are struggling with despair, throw yourself in to something you love and have always felt intimidated about trying.  Instead of giving up, make an appointment to meet yourself in 10 years.  Kevin Berthia did and he is so glad he did not throw it all away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.\u201d \u2013 Jeremiah 29:11<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t. It gets better. God bless Kevin Briggs. FWIW, in February 1977, I was pretty close to where Kevin Berthia was. No hope in my life. Without God in the world. Deeply lonely and, worse, with no idea that there was any hope or love, in a universe I was taught had spat me out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[274],"class_list":["post-44521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-virtue-of-hope"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>For Anybody Who has Ever Considered Suicide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don&#039;t. It gets better. God bless Kevin Briggs. FWIW, in February 1977, I was pretty close to where Kevin Berthia was. No hope in my life. 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