“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
   Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace [be] with thee. Amen.” 1Tim 6:20-21

On September 9, 2019, during the month of Suicide prevention, and the day before Suicide prevention day, mega-Church pastor Jarrid Wilson and executive director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Pennsylvania, Gregory Eells, both died by suicide. Both of whom were figureheads who dedicated their lives to helping others with depression, suicide, and other mental illnesses. One represented the Church, the other represented the world, and neither one of them could overcome suicide.

Jarrid Wilson was known for his mental health advocacy, and founded “Anthem of Hope”, and as their purpose states on their website “Anthem of Hope is a faith-centered organization dedicated to amplifying hope for those battling brokenness, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addiction and suicide.” Under their Resources it states: “…Anthem of Hope will provide the tools needed for every individual to discover that life is worth living, and that everyone has a purpose in this world.”

Jarrid’s last tweet was:

Is the arm of God too short!? There is no limit to what Jesus can, will, and wants to do for us…don’t sell him short. Our love of Jesus may fall short, but his love of us does NOT fall short. We need only ask of Him; Jesus wants to give us everything (spiritually speaking), so that we may be one with Him and the Father.

Gregory Eells had been working at Cornell University for more than a decade and was an expert on resilience, before going to the University of Pennsylvania, where he had confessed to his mother and wife that the job was harder than he anticipated and he didn’t like that it took him away from his wife and three children who still lived in Ithaca, NY. They both told him to quit, but he didn’t. He eventually was overwhelmed and overcome by the things in which he was supposed to be helping others to overcome. His life ended in a tragic suicide.

That being said, one can’t help but wonder about the people that went to Jarrid or Gregory for help. What hope do they have now? Not even their pastor/counselor could be “cured” from depression and suicide. What have their actions done to those people?

The following excerpt is from a testimony of one of the founding elders of our fellowship, LeRoy Gardenier, a former Roman Catholic priest who after 20 years of serving the church left to serve God, and who has since gone on to his reward, states perfectly how to address this suicide epidemic, and what happens when we look to man instead of God for a healing. Here’s an excerpt from his testimony:

“During my college years, throughout the years in Rome where I studied theology, during my tenure as teacher in a large Catholic high school, all through my time as associate pastor of a two-thousand family New England parish, I opened my heart to the one appointed over me as a superior of spiritual director seeking his counsel and asking his permission in order that I might know the perfect will of God. I submitted my will and judgment to the decisions of another and sought another’s permission in order that I might not miss God’s will for me. Throughout all these long years, I steadfastly sought the will of God, His good pleasure, through human agencies. I was extremely suspicious of what some termed a direct revelation from God. I believed that Jesus had sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to guide and direct the Church and to lead her into all truth, but I also held that the touchstone for determining the true operations of God’s Holy Spirit was submission to the shepherds, to the duly established church hierarchy.

In December of 1972 this same Holy Spirit, whose workings I had limited for so many years, introduced me to Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord. I wanted all that God had to give me, so I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, immersed in Divine Love, and began a personal walk with our dear Lord that has led me out of the darkness of bondage and confusion into the marvelous light and the liberty that is the heritage of those who are born again. I cherish, now more than ever before, the faith that God has given me. For years I tried to get rid of everything in order to acquire that “one pearl of great price” (Jesus), but I had gotten hopelessly confused and utterly lost in examining, describing, defining, and defending the mere ring of setting that surrounded the gem. My order of things was backward, one does not get rid of things in order to receive that “pearl”, we must first receive the “pearl” then the Lord Himself will help us to be free of a wrong or harmful setting. Then one evening I simply relaxed, opened my clenched fists, and spread out my hands to receive from my loving Father what I had searched for, sought for and worked for and studied for and strove for – for so long! I want to thank, and praise the Blessed Trinity, the one God: Father, Son and Holy Ghost for so simply, yet so profoundly sharing the inexpressible gift of eternal life with me! At last!

I felt prompted to share these words of testimony with you, hoping that through them God might encourage someone who is still searching, and to reassure another who has recently had a personal experience with the Lord. Finally, I would like to add a loving but firm word of caution and warning. In Matthew 13:45-46, Jesus states: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Our Lord wants us to keep clearly in view exactly what He has for us. In the Gospel parable, the merchant man is seeking “goodly pearls” and he finds “ONE” pearl of great price. During my years as a dedicated priest and religious in the Roman Church, I missed acquiring the “PEARL” altogether and ended up getting involved with nothing more substantial than a very fascinating, elaborate, but frustratingly empty container or setting in place of the precious gem that God wanted me to have all along.

I know that God wants me to caution you about this matter of submission to human authority, especially in these last days when so many things will try to enter in, in order to deceive and distract us and to rob us of our prize. If God loves you enough to entrust you with the “one pearl of great price”, He is also big enough and generous and loving enough to provide a container or setting for that gem if such is called for. But Jesus wants you to keep your eyes on the “PEARL”, that is, on Him, on eternal life, on your personal relationship with Him. Satan, our common enemy, would have you seek security in some cleverly devised formula or special system of submission to human authority that has no more than an apparent Biblical foundation. But, please, don’t let any church group, or society, or series of teachings or man-made system sidetrack you in any way. If the enemy of our souls is determined to block our acceptance of Jesus as our personal Savior, how much more is he set on trying to distract and sidetrack us after we have submitted our life to Jesus as Lord of our lives.

A spirit of rebellion has no place in our walk with the Lord. God certainly does use other human beings to help, guide, edify and encourage us along the way. Having been a pastor, I know what it means to be responsible for “tending the flock”! I firmly believe that the unconditional submission of our lives can be made only to God. To submit ourselves improperly to man not only places an impossible burden on the one to whom we are submitted and false expectations on those who are submitted to us, but misdirected submission can so easily start us on a search for a genuinely precious gem, yet, end up having us buy a very spurious counterfeit.”

The sum and substance are this, don’t put your trust and faith in any man, but put it in Jesus Christ. 

“Oh, Timothy, don’t fail to do these things that God entrusted to you. Keep out of foolish arguments with those who boast of their “knowledge” and thus prove their lack of it. Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life-they don’t know God. May God’s mercy be upon you.” 1 Tim. 6:20-21 (Living bible)

It’s all about a personal relationship with Jesus. He is your deliverer, healer, comforter. He is your everything! Suicide and depression are spirits that we need to be delivered from, and can be through Jesus Christ. I speak from personal experience wherein I was delivered from these spirits of depression and suicide over 25 years ago. This is not self-help. You cannot deliver yourself and neither can man, only Jesus can deliver you. Jesus wants to free us from these bondages, so that we may walk with Him and minister to the needs of others and be used by Him as He sees fit. Jesus’ six-fold ministry is summed up in these verses:

“The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

Read LeRoy Gardenier’s full testimony here: Pearl of Great Price