What a troubling week

All in all this has been a tough week. I don’t know if many have heard about the tragic event that took place at Providence College this past week. A young man committed suicide; he walked in front of a train to end his life. He was an acquaintance of mine. He was an extroverted individual, who was popular (at least to the outside eye), and well liked by his friends and family. One would always have to ask, why would someone like this commit such an act? The reality is, is that no one knows. There are many factors that play into something like this; how he was treated in his community what was going on in his intrapersonal life that perhaps he did not feel safe to share. Sometimes life just overwhelms and it is easy to believe there is no hope. My deepest condolences to his family. Please hold them in your spirits.
I would warn against any hard judgments of the situation. It would seem that within the Christian sphere this is an unforgivable sin. We do not know the situation, so all I would ask is for lots of grace and prayers for Providence and the family. I would also ask that we refrain from making judgments about what happens to people regarding suicide; none of us actually know all we can do is speculate. So again may we remain graceful and aware that this is a rampant part of our culture that needs to be understood before judged.
I suppose in these situations there is lots of blame for oneself. All I could think about were the times that I was rude to him and perhaps was not willing to become his friend because of personality differences. I suppose all I can do is fall before God and ask for forgiveness because of my haughty arrogance.
It has been made very clear to me that we don’t really know how to do community. On Sunday there was a message given that was remarkable. He talked about what community was like for God (being an all Transcendent Being). Community must be so beautiful for God. Between Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God there is an absolute transparency, and foundational agape love. We are supposed to be in community with one-anther. I realize fully that because of the fall we are all existentially separated from one another, but is it enough to say that Christ came not only to redeem us to God once again but also to redeem us to one-another.
How do we live in community? How can we be transparent with one-another when there isn’t the safety to do so? And when there isn’t the agape love of foundation?
I don’t know……but all I know is that something drastic must change. The way we have become so individualistic must change. We hedge ourselves in our little homes with our fences. What about the person next to us who is contemplating not living anymore? We have no idea, and do we even care?
We must learn to love and live in community, though the way not be easy. Humans are far too valuable to not.