A friend recently confided that he “Prays God would let him die.”
It was a profound confession which left me thinking for days. I now know what I WISH I had said to him…
… “Let me help you die.”
Allow me to explain.
This friend makes the assertion that he “has nothing to live for”. He has lost his wife, his children and grandchildren. They haven’t just left, they take every opportunity to 
express their hatred for him. He is completely alone. No one calls him and he is left to ‘celebrate’ special occasions on his own. The emotional pain is nearly too much for him to bear. The only ‘way out’ for him appears to be the end to his miserable life. He has it partly right.
Ending his life would end his pain. That doesn’t, however, require the kind of death he is praying for. Their is another kind of death that takes away pain and replaces it with joy. It removes hopelessness and brings purpose. The phrase in Christian circles is “dying to self”. A complete surrender to Christ and his will is what I am suggesting for my friend. It isn’t easy, but ultimately, it is the only solution for him. He will either “live” in his unbearable pain or he will die to self, in which case he will find new life and purpose.
Jesus said, “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Mathew 16:25
If you are looking for a way to escape the emotional pain of this life…
…Let me help you.
***Gordon Howie is an author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***
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This seems really shallow to me, Gordon. It reminds me of the “friends” who suggested to Job that his suffering was somehow his own fault.
Surrender to Christ doesn’t make rejection less painful. The Bible actually says the opposite: “A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool” (Proverbs 17:10).
I’m asking Christ to help the man you describe.
Thanks for praying for my friend Kurt. I actually spent considerable time with him, encouraging him and comforting him. The point of the article is simply that the way out of emotional pain is to get “beyond” ourselves and live for Christ. Your point is well taken, however, this wasn’t a “rebuke” as in the case of Job, where his friends were telling him his situation was because of his sin. My hope is that someone who is in significant despair will see this as a ‘way out’ rather than focusing on their pain.