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| Robin Williams (1951-2014) |
I am Mork from Ork!
It was a run-by fruiting!
These and other catch-phrases are all too familiar to me.
I was not prepared for the news that Robin Williams had died.
Then I learned about the gruesome circumstance surrounding his death.
He had committed suicide, first by trying to cut his wrists, then by asphyxiation with a belt.
Before learning about Williams's suicide, I had been listening to a sermon from Evangelical preacher Kenneth Hagin.
Speaking about fighting the good fight of faith, Hagin told his audience that man is a spirit, he possesses a soul, and he lives in a body.
Then he related the account of a wealthy psychologist from Beverly Hills, CA. Wealthy and well-off, with a beautiful family and a thriving medical practice, this psychiatrist had committed suicide.
People in the media and around the city could not understand why this established man, with friends and family, as well as famous connections to Hollywood Elite, would take his life.
Then Hagin explained that psychology, psychiatry can deal with a man's soul, all of which he understands through the mere senses, yet he cannot minister to a man's spirit.
No human means can.
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| God Creates Man (Michaelangelo) |
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. " (Genesis 1: 26-28)
Man came from God, as the creatures of the sea came from the water, as the stars were formed from the space, as the plants and animals came from the earth.
Man cannot be without being in God.
"4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2: 4-7)
The moment when Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, the knowledge of Good and Evil, dictating that they would live from their own guidance, rather than the gentle, gracious leading of the LORD, they died.
To this day, as long as man insists on being his own god, forming his own fullness through His own efforts, He will be notoriously frustrated
No amount of temporal wealth and relationships, no matter how grand or expansive, will ever be enough for a man:
"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."(1 John 2: 15-17)
We are destined for eternal life, and that is exactly what Jesus gives to us.
He gives us Himself: the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14: 6)
This depth within man was too much for psychologists to make sense of on their own. Recognizing that there is a life current within man much deeper than his thinking or feeling, psychologists talked about "the will" and then "the subconscious".
The truth is -- man is a spirit, possesses a soul, and lives in a body.
As long as the world insists on ignoring the destined eternity of man, he will continue to misdiagnose a great deal of what troubles him.
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| Portion of Hebrew Scripture |
Cases like Robin Williams, who hid a deep depression in spite of his best efforts, whether making others laugh or gaining notoriety through his routines (or his movie roles) could never fill up the emptiness which defines all men who make themselves the final source of all things:
Consider the example of the richest, most powerful, most influential man who ever lived, whose wealth to this day rivals the richest men on earth: Solomon, the Great King of Israel:
"2Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
4One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever." (Ecclesiastes 1: 2-4)
When reading Ecclesiastes, though, rightly dividing the Word bears in mind greatly. Solomon did not have the full revelation of the Messiah, He who would restore all things and promote man to his rightful place and moreso through His death and resurrection on the Cross.
"12I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. 14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 15That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." (Ecclesiastes 1: 12-15)
The word "I" features all too prominently throughout Ecclesiastes. Man is not able to be his own center, to provide his life. He simply cannot. He was never meant for such rugged independence.
Toward the end of the book, Solomon writes:
"13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14)
God has gone one better, in that He places Himself within us, guides us from within, and grants us life and blessings through Himself:
"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
This is the New Covenant, not just fulfilling the Old, but granting us life and that more abundantly through Jesus Christ.
Consider one phrase repeated at length in Ecclesiastes:
Now consider the final direct prophecy of the Messiah in Malachi, the last prophet before John the Baptist:
"1For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 4: 1-3)
When Jesus, our Sun of Righteousness, came, He was delivered for all our sins, fulfilled the Law of Moses, then rose from the dead and sat at the right hand of God the Father.
Today, for all who believe on Him, we are taken from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-6)
In other words: We are in the Son, the Son of Righteousness, above the son!
The causes of suicide ultimately stem from the failed sense that no matter what we do, we cannot grant ourselves life.
The answers is Life Himself, which we receive in Jesus!
Man is a Spirit, and when we allow the Son to live in us, then we shine in the Son above the sun!
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