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Be Not Afraid Despairunworthy to pray, Romans 8 offers this comfort: “TheSpirit helps us in our weakness…and intercedes for uswith groans that words cannot express.”When such verses fail to comfort a suicidal person,it is up to those of us near to him to have faith andbelieve in his stead – and, once again, to pray. Nomatter how certain a person is that he is beyond help,it is still possible to keep him afloat with the reassuringknowledge that others will continue to intercede onhis behalf. There is a profound protection in this. AsDostoevsky says, “A prayer for the condemned willreach God, and that’s the truth.”But what about when our best attempts at preventiondon’t work, when someone threatens to kill himselfanyway? According to the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah,who says that “a man’s life is not his own; it is not forman to direct his steps,” we ought to do everything wecan to save him. But we must never try to do this bymeans of harsh or judgmental words. A hurting soulneeds compassion, not condemnation; and despite hisadmonition, Jeremiah himself was tempted by suicidalthoughts, writing, “Cursed be the day that I was born!Oh, that I had died within my mother’s womb, that ithad been my grave! For my life has been but troubleand sorrow and shame.”There are other passages in scripture, too, thatacknowledge the travails of living, and the human0