MOIRAJO
  • Weekly Devotionals
  • Weekly Message
  • Sermon Podcasts
  • Links
  • Contact

"Life Is Precious - Thank You, Graham Moore" February, 2015

2/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
 

 

 








… "Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the child of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. "Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.  Isaiah 49:15-16

LISTEN TO:    Judy Collins "Wings of Angels"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNittvHI-SY
(written after her son Clark's suicide in 1992)

Last Sunday evening I turned on the TV for my obligatory  hour of Oscar ogling.  What I saw floored me.   Don't get me going on Lady Gaga's Sound of Music medley! However it was Graham Moore, the Academy Award screenwriter for The Imitation Game, who brought tears to my eyes.  The heart of his speech is captured in the above picture.   He admitted he tried to kill himself as a teenager because he felt weird, different, didn't fit in.  He used his prime time acceptance speech to encourage all the kids watching to hang in there.  To stay true to themselves. That there is a place for them in the world.

Suicide is one of those touchy subjects that make people squirm.  The pain is real.  The chemical misfiring in the brain is real.   For those who are trying to mitigate the pain and to banish the despair,  the love and hope is real.  Yet one of the deepest mysteries of life is that people do take their lives for a variety of reasons no matter how much they are loved by God, their family or friends.  

Suicide has been a family and professional acquaintance for many, many years.  As a witness to a suicide, I can tell you that particular memory has bored a hole into my heart that the years have cushioned but not erased.  In the theological debate about suicide I have also come to see that just as deadly are the little ways that we daily kill off life: through criticism, fear, anger.  We put people down, as well as ourselves.  We belittle other’s efforts or their dreams – or we discount the vision God has called us to because it is too different from what our family or friends are doing.  We forget the words of Jesus:  "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? Matt. 7:3.  We fail to see that in criticizing or hurting others we are really harming ourselves.  In good or bad we are interconnected.

It is true that life can be so broken that children and older people do what to take their lives.  There are cases where all the love in the world, the best doctors in the world couldn't sway a decision to die.  Yet there are many, many examples of healing, love, therapies working, going through the darkness until the corner is turned, light is seen and life is transformed.  We are not capable of unraveling this terrible mystery of suicide. What we can do is love no matter what.  Faith teaches us God is compassion and merciful -- even when we don't understand. Even when we feel forgotten, faith teaches us God does not forget us.  Faith teaches that even when we cannot perceive God, God is there. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death as well as beside the greenest pastures and still waters. Faith teaches us that goodness and mercy pursues us, all the days of our lives. Faith promises us that those we have lost to suicide are not lost to God. Faith teaches us that for those right now, who feel there is no future, there is indeed a future, a vision, a hope  and a promise.

 So whenever we are tempted to “kill” a piece of life today, let us chose to love. Whenever we meet someone who is despondent and low, let us seek to encourage and love them, praying they would come to know that they are precious and  that they are engraved in the hand of God - and they have a place in this world.

Pray:  “ God of Living, show us how to treasure the life you have blessed us with.  Comfort those who have lost a loved one to suicide.  We pray for those who are thinking of harming themselves.  Through your grace and our help may they know they are loved, precious and that you have made a place for them in this world. ”

     


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

    Archives

    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All

    Bible,  Living life on life's terms, spirituality

    RSS Feed

© Moira Ahearne 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.