The most wrenching pain that can pierce my heart is the helpless observance of a suffering child. Second is the suicide of a loved one. I know, I know that God is there in both cases.

In the case of a suffering child, we are not completely helpless. We can pray while the doctors work. Suffering does not always end in death. There is solace in the promises of God.

How can I deal with the suicide of an adult loved one? Should one of my best friends commit suicide, will I feel guilty for my blindness? Should I have seen it coming and done everything in my power to prevent it? Does my friend’s action mean that he will suffer eternally in hell? After his death, are my prayers too late? It is painful to consider such a thing. It is painful to contemplate any suicide. The suicide of a loved one would be exceedingly painful.

Does anyone remember the M A S H theme song? Here are a few verses of the lyrics:

Suicide is Painless

The game of life is hard to play
I’m gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I’ll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I’m beat
And to another give my seat
For that’s the only painless feat

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

Those words express the most haunting, hopeless despair imaginable. “The game of life is hard to play. I’m gonna lose it anyway.” If not for God, those words would be true and suicide would be rational.

“Suicide is painless.” For whom is it painless? Is it painless for those left behind? Is it painless for a stranger that reads about it in the newspaper, one who was feeling hopeless? Many believe that suicide is self-murder rewarded by an eternity in Hell. Is Hell painless?

“I can take it or leave it if I please.” Ah, here is the last remnant of control, a final option, the act of a free will, a denial of God and thus a contradiction. God gave us free will because of His immeasurable love. He could have made us like robots, even slaves. If He had forced us to love Him, it would not be love. Love must be a choice. Trust and faith must also be choices born of love. If we choose the love and mercy of God soon enough, we will probably not choose suicide.

This is about another suicide, a slow death that is already taking place. If the suicide is successful, it will break my heart, and probably yours. Worse than the broken heart is the unavoidable truth that our families will suffer terribly, perhaps for generations to come. I cannot allow it to happen without making every possible effort to intervene. Otherwise, my pain and my loss will be pressed down by my guilt.

America, my beloved America, has been committing suicide since the early 1900s. The first symptom was that she had a romance with socialism. Such deceived leaders as President Woodrow Wilson inspired it from the top down. The nation slowly but surely became more progressive. It became more intent on creating a utopia built by man, for the pleasure of man. As a nation, we built our Towers of Babel and began to worship our own gods and our own ingenuity. The nation, the government, its institutions and its laws all pushed aside the God that made America possible.

The people, even Christians, began to accept a subtle, gradual change in their personal, individual perspective. A relationship with God was to become solely an individual, personal thing. God was no longer the leader of the nation as a whole.

In the present, we see secularism promoted and Christianity suppressed. Laws, courts, institutions, media and government are ignoring our right of free religious expression. Contrary to our Constitution, a free expression of your Christian faith might land you in court.

Certainly, churches are still filled on Sunday mornings. Individual Christians can still be salt and light to other individuals on a private and individual basis. However, for America to fulfill its promise and its calling as a nation, America should be salt and light to other nations.

America should be the “shining city on a hill” that calls the downtrodden out of tyranny. America was a gift of God. America should serve God and His purposes. America should be blessed beyond description for its obedience. Instead, the nation of America has rejected God while Christians still argue that America is a Christian nation. Politicians of both parties will not solve the debt crisis because the people will not reelect them if they cut the big budget items.

Evident are the suicidal implications of a national rejection of God. In all of known history only two nations have been called to a special service of God. These were blessed to an unusual degree, for a time. They are ancient Israel and America. Now it seems America faces judgment and destruction, following the path of ancient Israel.

In “Harbinger,” author Jonathan Cahn reveals nine harbingers, signs or warnings of coming judgment following the pattern of ancient Israel. You do not have to be a Bible scholar to connect the dots. I recommend the book.

Hope is more palatable than “gloom and doom.” It is the hope revealed in the end of “Harbinger” that I will share with you now. The Lord has been long-suffering. However, in time, His purposes must be fulfilled, or Judgment must come. Judgment is not His purpose. Christians know that redemption is His purpose. To that end, the Lord has offered a covenant in Second Chronicles 7:14. It is an offer for redemption of a nation. The time has come when rejection of the covenant is continuance of national suicide.

For America, it is judgment or redemption. We have free will to choose. Time is the unknown variable. I believe time is short.

Suicide is not painless. Life is not painless. The hope of Heaven is a great gift because natural life has so much pain and so many challenges. When a nation or a person rejects God and tries to engineer its own destiny, God allows the pain and the challenges to call us back.

Consider these thoughts:

How can I measure joy if I have never known real sorrow?

How can I measure success if I have never known hardship?

How can my spirit know freedom if my soul has never been in chains?

How can I know God if I never seek His counsel?

For the sake of our great nation and with God’s help, we must intervene. Christians have received the commission to serve the cause. Pick up your sword and fight.

George Rogers Clark blogs at New American Liberty (http://newamericanliberty.us).