Discussion Guide

Teaching Point
God has given us life – we need to encourage those who are questioning whether their life is worth continuing to find meaning and purpose in God.

Opening Questions

• Have you personally known someone who has ended his or her own life? • If so, what were the feelings and thoughts you had in response?
• If not, what would you imagine survivors would be feeling and thinking?

Discussion
God is the author of life. He wants life for us. It may not always be perfect, but it is life. He also gives us choices about what we do with this life. Occassionaly, due to a host of factors, people choose to end their life. Those who are left behind reel from the tragic end of one they knew and loved. This death leaves a wake of guilt, questions, and can even be a seed for others to consider doing the same.

“Logic” wrote this song starting with the perspective of one who is calling the Suicide Prevention hotline. The words portray the despair of the individual as it says, “I’ve been on the low, I been taking my time, I feel like I’m out of my mind, it feel like my life ain’t mine,” and “I don’t wanna be alive, I just wanna die today, and let me tell you why.”

The second act of the song moves to a friend who is encouraging, “I want you to be alive, You don’t gotta die today, now lemme tell you why.”

The third and final act finds our despairing friend declaring, “I finally wanna be alive, I don’t wanna die today ... The lane I travel feels alone, but I’m moving ’til my legs give out.”

God has created us to do more than survive. He has created us to LIVE.

Psalm 139 defines this well where it says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with you.” (New International Version)

God wants us to LIVE. Indeed, the lane we travel may feel lonely at times, but God never abandons us. He gives us fresh legs to keep walking forward and puts people in our lives to see beyond our limited and fragile perspective.

Conclusion
Who around you needs encouragement and care? In what way or ways are you not letting your identity be in the God who made you and loves you unconditionally?