Spinal Trap: Back 2 Good - Suicide Prevention Suicide prevention hotlines and their site links areat the bottom of this page. If you live with chronic pain and are considering suicide,please do not give up hope.Please also realize that your narcotics and other mood and mind-altering prescription drugs AREworking against your best mental/emotional health. This is a medical fact that even has a medical term for it. It is called "emotional lability". Thus, if you feel like you can't take it anymore, I get that. Been there, felt that way too, for the first few years of my injuries. BUT, although I prayed to die, I did not kill myself. If you want to learn the truth about suicide from a Christian perspective, about why you should not commit it and what God wants for you and from you to live a contented life full of His peace and joy, I defer to Dr. Charles Stanley who gave the best and only focused lesson that I have ever seen. Please invest just 24 minutes to watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp4BhEVdK2Q If you don't want to listen to the singing group that appears first, Dr. Stanley starts speaking at about 3:12 into the video. Dr. Stanley's site link "In Touch Ministries" is on my Spinal Trap “God” page: http://www.spinaltrapb2g.com/god Whether you are considering suicide, work in a job to prevent it, or have a family member, loved one, co-worker, neighbor, etc…that you suspect is suicidal, please, give Dr. Stanley’s compassionate teachings a chance to reach you and share its existence with others. Don't feel strong enough to deal with life and live? Please listen to the Matthew West song "Strong Enough" in this next linkto realize that you don't have to be when you have God! http://www.spinaltrapb2g.com/uplifting_songs Riddled with guilt and self-blame? Feel unworthy to live? Please also listen to his song "Grace Wins".(It is in the same link.) Pray to St. Jude for desperate, hopeless and painful feelings. Click here to say his prayer and get relief:http://www.spinaltrapb2g.com/st_jude_prayer__jesus_candle If you are considering suicide, please turn to God. That is NOT His plan for anyone, but it is Satan's for he comes only to steal, kill and destroy! John 10:10 - Jesus speaking "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." The Bible makes it clear that although He doesn’t promise us an easy existence without suffering, He can give you the strength to withstand whatever is terrorizing your mind to this degree. If you are suicidal, please read this next Psalm repeatedly, because it is a prayer for help, hopelessness and depression that only God can heal. Psalm 143 1Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my plea! Answer me because you are faithful and righteous. 2Don’t bring your servant to trial! Compared to you, no one is perfect. 3My enemy has chased me. He has knocked me to the ground. He forces me to live in darkness like those in the grave.4I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear. 5I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works. I think about what you have done. 6I reach out for you. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.7Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die. 8Let me hear of your unfailing love to me in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I have come to you in prayer.9Save me from my enemies, LORD; I run to you to hide me. 10Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.11For the glory of your name, O LORD, save me. In your righteousness, bring me out of this distress. 12In your unfailing love, cut off all my enemies and destroy all my foes, for I am your servant. Click this next link and listen to "Need You Now" by Plumb. (On lower right column of this link.) Her lyrics will resonate with you if you are suicidal.http://www.spinaltrapb2g.com/uplifting_songs The Whole Armor of GodEphesians 6:10-18 10A final word: Be strong with the LORD’S mighty power. 11Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. 12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the Heavenly realms.13Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will be standing firm. 14Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. 16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. 17Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere. If you are so anxiety ridden and depressed that suicide seems like your only choice, please read these verses over and over again, OUT LOUD, until you realize that THEY are not just the right choice, but the righteous choice! Philippians 4:6-7 6Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (I can attest to the truth of vs. 7! More on His peace in chapters 27 and 43.)Romans 12:2 – Personal Responsibility – A Living Sacrifice to God "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." If you are suicidal and do not have any severe chronic health issues for which you take mood and mind-altering Rx's, chances are it is because you are letting the behaviors and customs of this world influence your mood, attitude and actions. DON'T.I have done no less than 144 physical therapy sessions throughout my decade plus of chronic pain. Regardless of which facility I patronized, who my therapist was or if it was for my shoulder, neck or low back damage, one common trait that every session had was pain. Working through physical injuries to regain whatever strength is possible, involves pain. When done right though, it is what I call “productive pain”. However, I once had a P.T. who was a former bodybuilder with a “no pain no gain” mentality that put me into severe pain flare ups right after my major spinal surgery.Her misplaced mentality caused me unnecessary pain that only delayed my healing and led to what I call “unproductive pain”. When I stop to think about peoples mental and emotional (spiritual) anguish, I realize that the same principle of productive pain vs. unproductive pain still applies. Everyone has pain on some level, whether it is mental/emotional or physical or all, is dependent upon the depth of the pain and its cause. The pain that you endure after something bad occurs is dependent upon your ability to respond to it vs. react; and not coincidentally, your ability to respond vs. react is directly related to how deep your faith is or lack thereof.I further realized that when God allows circumstances to occur that leave you in pain, He will always see to it that the results are productive if you lean on His strength to get through. If your pain is self-inflicted, especially from sin, you may endure unproductive pain as a punishment for your disobedience.Actually, you’d better hope that you do suffer because that means that He has not given up on you by trying to purify you to live for Him, His way.I can only believe that those who are wicked and prosper, that do not get broken in this life, ever, are the people whose names are not in the Lamb’s Book of Life because He knows that they will be paying for their sin in hell forever. However, the good news is that He can still help you turn things around and make your pain productive, but only if you go to Him, believe in Jesus, confess, repent and stop the behavior that put you where you are.Holy God Coach Tip #25: The bottom line of pain, regardless of if physical, spiritual or both is that if a person is to live their best life despite it, there is no going around it, just going through it with as much strength as you are willing to pray for and receive.Stop focusing on your pain and start focusing on your healing! In order to heal, one MUST BELIEVE IN GOD.Regardless of what you are going through, stop focusing on your pain and its inherent negativity because that only reinforces feelings of doubt, defeat, and depression which perpetuate your pain, physically and spiritually.Believe in God to receive His blessings of love, mercy, wisdom, guidance, patience, forgiveness, healing and grace so that you may be released from your pain and suffering! Pain and suffering only deplete you in every capacity whereas God’s Word is as energizing as it is transforming!It is less work to go to God than it is to suffer!Read the Bible to learn how to let Christ give you the strength that you need (Philippians 4:13) to enjoy your life, not just endure it or worse, end it!Let God’s love for you give you the support you need when physical and/or spiritual pain breaks you so badly that you think death is your best choice.It’s not and it never will be.Give Him a chance to show you. Most of this verbiage is from chatper 10 of my e-book:"GOD & The Many Things in The Bible That Surprised Me" To benefit from the entire section on this topic, please click this link and enjoy a FREE preview of the first 14 chapters! http://www.spinaltrapb2g.com/god__the_many_things_in_the_bible_that_surprised_me_buy_e-book_here The Trials of Wanda and John If you still think that you have “good reasons” to take your life, let these two people who endured so much more than most, inspire you to stay alive, turn to God and thrive! The best personal example that I know for representing being grateful daily no matter what trials you go through comes from my dear friends Wanda and John. In 1997 when my just paid off car had an accident that killed the engine and transmission in one fell swoop and I was beside myself, they taught me: “Grace, there are problems in life and there are inconveniences, most things are the latter and though it may not seem like it right now, this is just an inconvenience.” How right they were but until I lost my good health, I could not truly understand. Now? I understand that this poignant lesson could only come from people like them who had such strong, unwavering faith in God despite trials of which most will never know.John was a Vietnam vet exposed to Agent Orange and began experiencing trouble with his pancreas in 1966. This was the beginning of one medical nightmare and near death experience after another. The damage to his pancreas resulted in him developing such severe diabetes (a disease of which John had absolutely no family history) that he became permanently, completely blind in his left eyes a result of developing glaucoma and two retinal detachments. He also temporarily lost all vision in his right eye as well.The destruction of his pancreas led to a second pancreas being put in his body next to his own; despite this, pancreatitis almost killed him in 2002.As a result of the systemic destruction of Agent Orange to his pancreas and body in general, he also had to have a total of three kidney transplants, was on long term dialysis three days a week and had to completely change his diet and get blood work to monitor all of the numbers related to these health conditions.His first kidney transplant was in 1987 and afterwards he was put on 22 different prescription medications! 22! TWENTY-TWO! And I thought my 9 were bad! This just shows that no matter how challenged you are in life, someone else always has it much worse. Six months later, the transplanted kidney failed as did his other kidney. His eventually had a second kidney transplant and it was a few years after that that we met and became friends.I can personally attest to how he and Wanda lived the lesson they taught. Wanda and John always had a Jesus face. He always smiled and whistled a lot. If he was having a bad day, the only thing he’d say when I asked him how he was, was “No use complaining.” and that precious man did not. If you are a chronic complainer and your health or problems don’t reach anywhere even close to the level of this man’s, (and many others) please, let him and his admirable, godly attitude be a model for you to follow. In other words, Wanda and John were the epitome of these verses:1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16Always be joyful. 17Keep on praying. 18No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.John’s third kidney transplant was in 2003. Third time was the charm for him and not so coincidentally was donated by his soul mate, wife and love of his life, Wanda. Please know that this isn’t even a complete list of all his conditions or their all-consuming and never-ending challenges.Several years later John went deaf in his left ear, reason unknown despite seeing specialists and getting numerous tests. In the summer of 2010, he was diagnosed with an incurable form of sarcoma that only 19 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with at that time; needless to say, not much was offered in the form of treatment because money is not spent researching such rare conditions that affect so few. John was given just 6 months to live but thanks to their deep unwavering faith in God and love for one another, Wanda and John did everything in their power to seek help. He did a combination of Western, alternative and holistic medicine. John lived until September 2012; more than 2 full years after he was told he only had 6 months.If you are suicidal and your problems are not of any physically devastating nature, let alone as great and numerous as this man’s consistently were for 46 years, I pray to God that by sharing about him and Wanda He gives you a desperately needed new perspective about the difference between those with faith in God and those who struggle more due to none.Suicide is a choice that you do not have to make no matter how terrible you feel and the more terrible you feel, the more reason you have to turn to God!Healing is a choice that you can make right now!Say prayers of thanks to Him for all that He gives you.Change your focus from your problems to serving others whose are worse.Ask Him to please send relief to all who suffer unimaginablybecause as John and Wanda’s trials show, it can always be worse;but as their attitudes showed, when you have God, it will always be better. YOU ARE LOVED There are MANY tough days in this life. Everyone has them and everyone gets overwhelmed at times by them. That is normal and to be expected. Please, do not let your problems overtake your head and heart. ALL problems have a solution but that solution IS NEVER going to be suicide. Just because it may seem like the only way out does NOT mean that it is. IT IS NOT. The hardest part may be asking for help but as soon as you do, it will get easier! PLEASE USE THESE RESOURCES: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:1-800-273-8255 http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=veterans%20crisis%20line&utm_content=crisis&utm_campaign=crisis http://www.suicide.org/hotlines/texas-suicide-hotlines.html https://afsp.org/ If the data on this page has helped you to feel better and you want to read my e-book"GOD & The Many Things in The Bible That Surprised Me" but you can't afford the $5.55 e-book cost, please email me and I will gift it to you. My email link is on the bottom left of this and every Spinal Trap: Back 2 Good site page.My sender names are "Spirit Wellness" and "Spinal Trap: Back 2 Good" so please be sure to check your junk/spam folder for my reply.