Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning remains a classic today. His ideas, forged in the hellish pit of Auschwitz, still stun and move us. He reminds us that no matter how bad your circumstances are, the only freedom that cannot be taken away is the right to choose your attitude. The right to choose your own way. Coming from Frankl, these words no longer seem like new age pabulum. They were forged from history's most brutal laboratory. Frankl quotes Nietzsche with approval: "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." In the concentration camps, Frankl stated that the people who survived these most inhuman conditions were the people who believed they had something to live for. These people would never give up. When people gave up in Auschwitz, death would surely follow. As I write this, I am going through one of the most difficult circumstances of my life. Frankl's words jolted me out of my depression and stupor and got me hoping again. If he could survive Auschwitz, certainly I could survive my problems and face them with courage and bravery if I only would choose to do so. Wherever you are now, Viktor Frankl, I owe you a lot.
America in 2016 is certainly not Auschwitz. We enjoy freedom and luxury that Frankl and his fellow inmates could only dream of. But in America we certainly have not abolished despair. Depression and suicide remain menaces. But suicide rates in America remain incredibly uneven.
Suicide rates of white males over forty years old in America are THIRTY times more than black females of the same age group. Not three times more, not thirty percent more, thirty times more! Since I am a white male approaching my 54th birthday with a melancholy temperament, this is a cause for concern. I read in my hometown newspaper just last Sunday, how suicide and depression rates among white working class males is going through the roof. What is going on here? Could it be that we have all been sold lies? That wealth and status and accumulating stuff is the be all and end all of our existence in America? That the tragedy of my brethren was that they believed these lies? As the fallout of America's winner-take-all society reached critical mass, could it be that the so called losers couldn't take the shame? Was the shame so unbearable that some of these men killed themselves? I think so. Because when these men found out that their financial and social standing were hopeless, life lost all meaning. They had nothing else to fall back on. And what of the black females, the ones with the much lower suicide rates. They are certainly a much scorned group in America. They are much less wealthy then their white male brethren. But they are not killing themselves. Could the reason be that because of circumstances, they never really bought into the American dream? When hardship comes, these ladies, as a group, have something to fall back on. They have their community and are not as isolated as the white male. This goes to man's, and woman's search for meaning. For when hard times come, as they inevitably will for all of us, we must have a reason to keep going. Something to give meaning to our sufferings. This is true whether we are in Auschwitz or a wealthy suburb. The question is not how much stuff we have but whether our lives have meaning.
So, in these hard times of mine, what gives my life meaning. It is simply the fact that Jesus Christ died on the Cross to forgive me of my sins and bring me to Eternal life. And just as importantly, bring my friends and family to eternal life also. I am the youngest child of a family of five. with the death of my father two years ago, I am the last survivor. My eldest brother died of cancer in 2009 at age 49. My second eldest brother, died in a reckless gun accident in 1992 at the age of 37. You would think that now that my wife and I have been left alone, that suffering in the other areas of our lives would have eased up. Think again. The suffering of this life grinds on and on despite the desperate cries of Scott Stark to the Almighty screaming "Ease up on me! Call the dogs off! You took my family! Isn't that enough?? But I don't give up. Because I have the hope of Heaven. The hope that I will see everyone again. That we will be reunited and all our tears will be wiped away. I offer up my sufferings in the hope that they can be used by my family in redemption. The hope of heaven gives my life on Earth meaning. I use this power to keep going on, that there is something the world needs that only I can give, even if I have wasted a lot of my 54 years.
So let us all pray, Lord, give us your love. Your grace. For with this we are rich. We need nothing more.
Nothing.
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