Pastor Andrew Stoecklein is the lead pastor of Inland Hills Church in Chino, California. He was a man of God preaching on the stage every Sunday telling everyone to live a Christ-like life but on the contrary, he committed suicide. It was a shocking event that a person who teaches how one should value life took his own life unexpectedly. Plenty of reasons can be considered why Andrew did that.
We cannot determine the exact reason why an individual has a concept of suicide since we’re not expert of mental illness. Kayla, Andrew’s wife was still grieving when she posted a blog about myths of committing suicide. She addressed this to people claiming that Christians have a better understanding of the concept of suicide as a believer of Christ.
Most of us believe that a person who took his own life and committed suicide has no chance of going to heaven. But Kayla’s perception was different. She believes that despite what had happened to her husband, Andrew is now in the paradise with our Lord Jesus Christ. This is because she strongly believes that Andrew’s relationship with God is intimate. By all means, he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior and he preached the gospel in order for men to be educated of the scriptures. Because of Andrew’s deeds when he was still living, many souls were saved through his teachings.
We play an important role for people that we knew especially at times that they are down and depressed. We should not let them feel alone and unsupported because this will only give them a chance to create a concept of committing suicide.