Recently a friend blogged about Michael’s death (read her blog here). In her post, she shared about how shocked she was to learn that the vivacious man she remembered had died by suicide. As I read her thoughts, I remembered doing whatever I could to help Michael cover up his struggles with bipolar disorder. We simlply didn’t want others to know about his mental illness….

It seems like I have been bombarded with phone calls and emails from people asking the same question — “Does a person who commits suicide go to heaven or to hell?” This is a legitimate question, but for far too long, it has been answered with the WRONG answer. Sadly, many well-meaning Christians have suggested that suicide is an unforgiveable sin, punishable by an eternity…

This past month, I’ve had six different people contact me about someone they care about who has either committed suicide or is contemplating it. I don’t know about you but this absolutely breaks my heart. I can’t imagine being so hopeless that I see suicide as the only escape. How can you tell if someone is thinking of killing himself? While there is no foolproof…