ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: guest column
SOURCE: BONNIE ROBERTS
This is a commentary of personal conviction. It is not a valiant effort to save the world. If it makes one person stop and reconsider their worth, you can label the commentary whatever you'd like.
I sat at the dinner table the other night and watched in shock as a 31-year-old woman described on camera how she felt she had nothing to do on Earth and was ready to "leave her body." She was one of the 39 who were part of a mass suicide.
Later that night, I wondered if there was anything anybody could have done to have made a difference in their lives. How sad that many people - me included - don't say enough or do enough to make others feel needed.
These people set themselves apart from the rest of society, even refusing to hold a Social Security number. It is obvious they wanted no part of the world. It is sad when a life is wasted because a person thinks the world has nothing to offer them, they have nothing to offer the world, and there is nothing to do.
As a Christian, I believe the world is where we are for this appointed time and we have to make the best of it. So many families have suffered through suicide and are left wondering why these relatives took their lives and felt there was no hope.
If you feel as these people did - that there is "nothing to do on Earth" - I challenge you to look beyond your front yard and find out how precious life is and how you can make a difference.
As long as there is just one hungry child in your neighborhood, you are needed. For as long as you have a friend who is sinking further and further into depression, you are needed. For as long as there are women, children (and men) in abusive situations, you are needed. For as long as there is one soul in your family who doesn't know the fullness of God's love, you are needed. For as long as there is life as we know it, you are needed.
There is a little sign that sometimes we see hanging in church classrooms and in a child's room that says, "I know I am OK because God doesn't make junk." Many people don't think God made us. I believe he did.
Though I have suffered through my share of depression and ill feelings toward the world, I finally came to the realization the world was not such a bad place after all. I feel if God took the time to make me, he must have felt I was needed somewhere.
You must rise above your circumstances and not allow them to smother you. You can't always totally change things. But you can go to bed at night with some degree of peace and contentment knowing you have done all you can do within your own means, and the rest is left up to a power greater than yourself.
Live life with no regrets that you didn't do enough or say enough. Time is precious.
BONNIE ROBERTS is an editorial assistant in the Office of Public Relations at Radford University.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB