November 10^th, 2008 by Stephanie B

Question

when a person is fired from a job or fails in life, it is better that he/she commit suicide.  there is no other option.  once a person loses a job, his/her life is meaningless for no other employer wants them.  furthermore, if a student is not an A student, he/she cannot go to college and has to accept a menial job and be poor.  it is better to commit suicide than to live a life without purpose and meaning.

Answer

Have you ever hear the phrase, "The mind’s a terrible thing to waste"? Most people hear it as just a phrase to casually toss around, but I see that it is not only 100% true, but it also has serious significance on our lives especially our quality of life.

The brain consists of neurological pathways that control and monitor everything we do. They develop throughout our lives (even as newborn babies) by different kinds of stimulization: sight, hearing, talking, motor skills, smell, etc… Once these pathways are created they need to be maintained and further developed by more of the same kind of stimulization. When we understand this amazing fact about our minds we are able to see clearly that nothing, not even our smallest action or thought is wasted –However, when an individual is depressed they neglect to exercise certain, and at times, most parts of their brain.

Our legs, arms, gluts, and abs are not the only parts of us that need exercise –Our minds do too! Do you know what happens when somebody becomes depressed? They start to withdrawal from people, they stop engaging in activities they once enjoyed because they don’t see a point in them anymore, they often (not always) sleep more than the non-depressed and they generally stay cooped up in their house as much as possible.

Do you know what happens to a person’s brain when they start doing these things? The neural connections associated with every behavior they are not doing anymore die! I’m not joking –Our brain is, well, pretty intelligent and as such it makes very important decisions often without us even being aware. When we do not use neural pathways over a period of time the brain decides to cut its losses, and I mean that quite literally. That neural pathway dies and other neural pathways (if there are other ones that are thriving take over). It is very similar to the parable Jesus shares about the vine and the branches (John 15:1-17).

In this parable the branches (people) get pruned or are cut off completely to make room for other branches. The gardener (God) determines what to do with which branch based on if that branch is producing fruit or not –The ones that produce fruit he prunes so that they can bear more fruit, but the ones that do not bear fruit he cuts off so that the fruitful branches have more room to grow.

This is exactly what our brains do. The fruitless neural connections get cut off so that the fruitful ones can take over that area of the brain –Our brain is NOT a pack rat, that’s for sure. "If your not using it lets get rid of it" is the philosophy of the mind. One other important point from the parable of the vine and branches is that Jesus is the vine. For any branch (person) to bear fruit he must remain in the vine. He cannot bear fruit without Jesus. So in the same way when we talk about depression and neural connections we need to consider the fact that this may have more to do with God than the world (or Satan for that matter) would want you to believe.

So you see, in truth, we really can waste our minds, but knowing this allows us to see how to best cultivate our minds as well. Everything we do, say, or think either creates new neural pathways or strengthens existing ones so that they can be more fruitful in the future. Even the most minute things you do improve brain functioning –Things like saying hi to somebody, putting your pants on one leg at a time, or even our favorite activity in America, drinking coffee.

If you use this perspective to judge the importance of your life right now, I think you will see that even though you may fail at things failing is a learning experience and a learning experience translates into greater brain functioning. So you see, failure is really success in disguise.

Now if you are struggling with depression the best thing you can do for your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health, and most importantly your spiritual health is to fight through depression –Fight through it with all you’ve got.

Every time you go out with friends when you feel like staying home because of depression you are one step closer to victory. Every time you decide to be active instead of sleeping the day away you are one step closer to victory. Victory over depression does not come over night. It take hard work and patience. Suicide is an easy way out –A courageous man or woman would fight it with everything they’ve got ‘til they can’t fight it anymore because they’ve experienced victory over it.

Depression, if taken care of, is only one season of your life. There are many other season, better seasons that you are yet to experience. You cannot let the feelings that come with depression dictate your actions. Instead you must take a stand against depression despite the fact that you don’t feel like it. It’s the only way to have victory. And I promise if you do this and put your hope in God, your feelings won’t be far behind. They’ll catch up.

We are in spiritual warfare, Christians and non-Christians alike, whether we believe it or not (Ephesians 6:10). Satan would like nothing better than to convince us that spiritual warfare does not exist because then we are forced to believe the worst about ourselves, about others, and about life. We become hopeless. Suicide happens when people internalize Satan’s lies to the extreme –They just soak it all up. "You’re worthless, your never going to be happy, nobody loves you, nobody wants you"…The list goes on and on.

But if you exercise those neural connections a bit by objectively looking at your life you will find that those lies are not based in reality whatsoever.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I hope this helps clear the fog a bit.

Forever in Christ,

Stephanie

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