Taking a Shortcut

Last Sunday, a friend of mine, a middle aged man who our family has known for over 20 years was found dead outside. His own pistol was lying a few feet away from him.
It was a suicide.
His memorial service was a week later, and I had a chance to talk to another old friend there who has MS. Through his weakness, he began ministering to me. He explained how many times he himself had put a gun to his head...but eventually put it down. He had decided against suicide because of the devastating consequences he would leave the people around him in. What a confusing message he would send. God his strength, the LORD is his victory. There is victory...then...no victory anymore? Along with the fact that the only reason someone will commit suicide is because they are listening to Satan's lies. That is it plain and simple.
One of the things that really stuck out to me was his analogy of running on a racetrack. Your legs are killing you. Sometimes hurdles pop up in front of you, sometimes you have to scramble over logs or hills, sometimes you have to climb ropes, sometimes you have to swing across the monkey bars, and sometimes you slip and fall. And sometimes we think it's just too hard. We want it all to stop, right now. It just so happens that there's a shortcut, it's always available. God said you need to finish the race, but it's to hard...just too hard, and you want to take that shortcut.
It's easier, it takes away the pain, but it's not right. We're not supposed to take it. God has given us the life we have, and we have to finish the race.
I have full faith that our family's dear friend is in heaven now, but devastation has hit the people at home in many different ways.

We shouldn't take the shortcut. God is always there to fly to. Satan tries to lie and penetrate our faith, but no; his words are not true. In these times,we need to lift our eyes to God, not to the shortcuts or the easy way out, but to him in these dark times.