A Suicide Note

Some years ago, a pastor handed me a piece of paper on which was written a poem. He had just returned from visiting a troubled teenager who had attended some meetings his church had hosted. Arriving at the young man's home the pastor had discovered that the teenager had com­mitted suicide and left this note behind for the pastor to read:

Lost in a world of darkness
without a guiding light,
Seeking a friend to help
my struggling, failing plight.

Now all of you good people
just go on passing by,
Leaving me with nothing
but this lonely will to die.

Somewhere in this lonely world
of sorrow and of woe
There's a place for me to hide,
but where I do not know;

For no matter where I go
I never will escape
The devil's reaching, clutching hands,
or the drink of fermented grape.

So out of my grief and anguish
Perhaps some wandering boy will see,
Long after I have left this world,
And build his own life, strong and good and flee.

Extracted from Ravi Zacharias' Deliver Us From Evil.