A God-Oriented Story – Post Suicide
Article submitted by: 15928 Marek Wakulczyk
Define God as you wish, I share with you a spiritual story that has brought us some peace. It serves to nudge us back into compassion and love after someone is taken from us by suicide.
I have lost friends to war, accidents, disease, and crime…but these suicides are the hardest to process emotionally. My peer group continues to rank highly for early success – and early death. Please help suicide prevention in your own way, and spread compassion for all entangled subsequent to suicides.
The story goes like this…
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One of God’s beautiful creations was a gorgeous lake. This lake had delightful scenery; this lake had delightful water. Many of God’s other creations shared the lake, each in its own way knowing where was God. There were fish in the water, there were songbirds, and there were humans too. The men women and children enjoyed the lake for play, for their water needs, and were very connected to the health of the lake. The humans always dove into the lake, for the light of God was always easy to see and they always knew which way was up. This balance pleased God and God sent yet more love, and his creations looked in his direction in thankfulness.
In this land of free will, the serpent was the first to nudge something unclean into the lake, sending a nasty ripple across it. The ripple impacted not just the water, it upset all of God’s creations in the lake by reducing the amount of light penetrating through. But their fears were calmed by hearing God’s voice, for it was just a small ripple and the light of God could still be seen.
Over time, in some places, many serpents pushed many things into some of the lakes of life. Those lakes had so many negative ripples that these formed great dark waves that loudly crashed into each other and everything else associated with a once peaceful lake. God’s beautiful creations persevered through. They still dove into the lake and shared the wonderful adventure of life and its wavy ups and downs. The crashing waves sometimes made it hard to hear all of Gods loving words. There was echo, there was distortion, there was uncertainty as to the direction from which God’s voice came amongst the noise. They did not always know where to turn to find our God’s love. But God so loved them that he had given other senses too, so if their ears betrayed them, their eyes could help. They knew which way was up though they were sometimes being thrown about, for they could see the heavens and the beauty all around, and they can still feel the loving concern of God. They knew where to find God and this pleased God too.
It angered the serpent that there was nothing he could do stop God ‘s creations from the joys of diving into the lake. He too pushed on in his ways.
In life, there can come storms. Occasionally, those storms came quickly and harshly. Their gusting winds stirred up much mist, and the hard rains and clouds blocked the sun’s rays. God’s beauty became harder to see – the humans diving deep into the lake did not always turn in the right direction. The thunder and echoing crashing waves sometimes betrayed where to turn to follow the voice of God. Sometimes, amidst the bouncing in the waves, the darkness of the storm, the distorted echoes, sometimes a human playing in the lake would unfortunately turn towards the bottom of the lake. They could not hear the frantic calls of their friends, nor see the gestures made to guide them back up towards the light, nor notice the many signs left by God. They felt alone, so very alone as they started to lack breath, started to lack energy, and started to lack direction. In those times when this happened, God reached out into the lake with his strong hand and offered the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes, this was not enough. Confused by the perceived chaos, sometimes his beautiful creation drowned amidst all that was happening in the moments of disorientation.
In those times, God reached out, held them and protected them. God took them, hugged them, and brought them home, caressed in compassion and love. There, in heaven with his maker, the one who drowned rested in the peace of the Almighty, far away from the storm and the waves.
God loves us as we are. God always has. God always will. God is always there, though sometimes in life we turn away.
We will miss you. Rest in peace old friend.
Credits
The text was inspired by 2011 words from Father Brian Hennessey of Our Lady of the Visitation Church near Ottawa Canada, and 2015 words from Rachelle Gray-Doherty and Dee Rajska. If your memory is better than ours and you know an earlier author / legend that planted the seeds, please let me know. I will gladly acknowledge and thank them.
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Readers are encouraged to contact Marek Wakulczyk:
MarekWakulczyk@TDVsolutions.com