The Suicide of Robin Williams — Man is a Spirit

Robin Williams (1951-2014)

Good Morning Vietnam!

I am Mork from Ork!

It was a run-by fruiting!

These and other catch-phrases are all too familiar to me.

I was not prepared for the news that Robin Williams had died.

Then I learned about the gruesome circumstance surrounding his death.

He had committed suicide, first by trying to cut his wrists, then by asphyxiation with a belt.

Before learning about Williams's suicide, I had been listening to a sermon from Evangelical preacher Kenneth Hagin.

Speaking about fighting the good fight of faith, Hagin told his audience that man is a spirit, he possesses a soul, and he lives in a body.

Then he related the account of a wealthy psychologist from Beverly Hills, CA. Wealthy and well-off, with a beautiful family and a thriving medical practice, this psychiatrist had committed suicide.

People in the media and around the city could not understand why this established man, with friends and family, as well as famous connections to Hollywood Elite, would take his life.

Then Hagin explained that psychology, psychiatry can deal with a man's soul, all of which he understands through the mere senses, yet he cannot minister to a man's spirit.

No human means can.

God Creates Man (Michaelangelo)

Man was made a spirit being from the beginning:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. " (Genesis 1: 26-28)

Man came from God, as the creatures of the sea came from the water, as the stars were formed from the space, as the plants and animals came from the earth.

Man cannot be without being in God.

"4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2: 4-7)

The moment when Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, the knowledge of Good and Evil, dictating that they would live from their own guidance, rather than the gentle, gracious leading of the LORD, they died.

To this day, as long as man insists on being his own god, forming his own fullness through His own efforts, He will be notoriously frustrated

No amount of temporal wealth and relationships, no matter how grand or expansive, will ever be enough for a man:

"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."(1 John 2: 15-17)

We are destined for eternal life, and that is exactly what Jesus gives to us.

He gives us Himself: the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14: 6)

This depth within man was too much for psychologists to make sense of on their own. Recognizing that there is a life current within man much deeper than his thinking or feeling, psychologists talked about "the will" and then "the subconscious".

The truth is — man is a spirit, possesses a soul, and lives in a body.

As long as the world insists on ignoring the destined eternity of man, he will continue to misdiagnose a great deal of what troubles him.

Portion of Hebrew Scripture

Cases like Robin Williams, who hid a deep depression in spite of his best efforts, whether making others laugh or gaining notoriety through his routines (or his movie roles) could never fill up the emptiness which defines all men who make themselves the final source of all things:

Consider the example of the richest, most powerful, most influential man who ever lived, whose wealth to this day rivals the richest men on earth: Solomon, the Great King of Israel:

"2Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.