As I sit down to write this, I have just learned that Pastor Rick Warren’s youngest son, Patrick. committed suicide on Friday night. Warren is Pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, a mega-church, located out in California.

From all accounts, Patrick was a very nice 27 year old, who had suffered from mental illness for a long time, resulting in depession and suicidal thoughts.

According to a press release, issued by Saddleback Church,

Despite the best healthcare available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life,” the statement said. “We ask everyone to join us in praying for the entire Warren family and that God’s comfort and peace will be with them as they deal with this difficult situation.

As I mentioned above, Rick Warren is one of the best known Pastors in America. He has had two Best Sellers in The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, which has been used by many pastors and church leaders as a blueprint on building a successful church.

Every seventeen minutes, someone in the United States commits suicide. Each day approximately 86 Americans commit suicide, and 1,500 people attempt suicide. Suicide is the nation’s eighth leading cause of death. For those 15-24 years of age, suicide is the third leading cause of death. More Americans, an estimated 31,000, kill themselves than are killed by homicide.

For every completed suicide, there are twenty-five attempted suicides. An estimated 750,000 suicide attempts annually affect the lives of millions of family members. The number of survivors grows 186,000 each year. For every suicide, at least six other people’s lives are affected.

I could not believe it, the other day, when I got in a discussion with a Libertarian on an Facebook Page. This young man insisted that

a) The pain that the individual is going through supercedes the selfishness of the act itself and all those family and friends who are left behind to suffer and grieve.

b) Suicide is merely an expression of individual freedom, and it is the business of the individual who is contemplating it, only.

When I could compose myself, I told the young man the story of my good friend Mike.

Mike dropped out of high school, got his GED, and enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he honorably served. He married a wonderful Christian girl, and became the father of two sons. Mike eventually landed a wonderful job, working nights as an air traffic controller, making well over 6 figures. is wife and sons, teenagers at the time, worshiped the ground he walked on. They were part of my extended family at the time. We celebrated the holidays together, and they considered my in-laws their surrogate parents. Mike and his wife had matching Harleys, which the drove over to my in-laws to show them off.

The world was Mike’s oyster, or so it seemed.

You see, Mike was battled an internal war with “princes and principalities”. He was what is called nowadays, bi-polar, or manic/depressive, as I’ve always called it.

Beneath the veneer of this easy-going family man, was a hedonist who immersed himself in pornography and gambling, unbeknownst to his wife.

Mike actually had been prescribed medicine for his illness, but, he stopped taking it, because as an air traffic controller, he was subject to random drug tests. He was afraid of his illness being found out about and, subsequently, losing his job as a result.

One day, Mike brought home some plastic pipes. When his wife as him what they were for, he told her that they were for fixing a drainage problem in their yard.

Shortly after that, his wife had to go out of town to care for her father, who had open heart surgery. On a cold December morning, Mike hugged the boys goodbye and put them on the school bus. He then loaded the pipes into the back of his white Chevy s10 pickup truck, along with some air conditioning insulation.

He drove down and parked beside a favor fishing spot, where he ran the pies from his exhaust, through the truck window. After putting insulation aroung the pip, he started the truck, popped in a cassette tape of his favorite tunes, and checked out. He was in his mid-30s.

It was three days before his wife and her twin sister’s birthday.

It is one of the most sad and selfish things I have ever witnessed in my 54 years.

It was soon discovered that Mike owed one of the casinos $180,000 in gambling debt, which they could not collect for his widow. It was also discovered that Mike had taken out 5 life insurance policies on himself. Only one of them would not pay his widow any money, due to his suicide.

His wife and sons wound up moving in with her parents, using some of the money Mike left to expand their house, to make room for them.

Mike left more collateral damage than that behind.

Before I started dating his mother, my stepson, who was 5, hung out over at Mike’s house all the time, and viewed Mike as a second father. When Mike killed himself, my steps-on was around 16. He was so devastated that he had to have counseling in order to deal with Mike’s death.

Is suicide the ultimate act of selfishness?

I think it is. As Christians, we are taught that it leads to estrangement from God.

Meanwhile, here in the material world, for those left behind, at least for a while, it leads to undeserved grieve and suffering.

Which only God can comfort. 

Matthew 6:34 ESV –

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Ephesians 1:4-5 ESV –

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Matthew 10:39 ESV –

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV –

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ESV –

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

May God comfort the Warrens and their family during this horrible time.

Until He Comes,

KJ