Today, I saw an episode of Touched by an Angel that I hadn't seen before. It was about a rancher who committed suicide.
Why did he do that? I guess he was just plain tired of living. He had turned 40, and he felt he had nothing to show for his life.
Andrew (the angel of death) tried to reason with him. He told him that God created everyone and everything for a purpose, even if we don't know right now or tomorrow or the next day what that purpose is. The rancher did some farming, so he should know better than anyone that life takes time. And Andrew informed the rancher that his wife had breast cancer, meaning she needed his support now more than ever.
Well, the rancher told Andrew, "You've given me things to think about," then he shot himself while Andrew was walking away. When the rancher's wife was trying to make sense of the suicide, Andrew told her: "You know, I've been an angel for a long time, and one thing that continues to astound me about you humans is not that a few of you give up on life, but that most of you keep going on. Life is so hard, and yet so many of you get up every morning, believing that each day is a new day. There's some hope inside of you that keeps you going."
And, indeed, there is. There is some notion within us (or at least me) that things can get better. Or, at the very least, we keep on going because there are people who love and care about us, and maybe even need us.