“Lord, rescue me from that which troubles me." ~ Psalm 31:15
Twenty years ago on an overcast
September day, a 19-year-old teen suffering the psychotic effects of bipolar
disorder, looked in the mirror and hated what he saw. He HAD to die! Suicide would lift from his family the burden
of dealing with someone so crazy.
He wept openly on the bus toward a chosen destination,
hoping that just one person would notice his tears, approach him and ask: “Are
you okay? Is something wrong? Can I help you?”
Following a common pattern among people considering suicide, he reasoned that “If just one person cared enough to ask, he wouldn’t go through with it.”
No one did.
He paced the famous span about 40 minutes before a European
woman, approached and asked him to take her picture. She handed over a camera and posed. Kevin took the photos and returned the camera. She thanked him
and went on her way.
“That’s it! Nobody
cares,” he said to himself. Leaving his
backpack behind with a note inside to his Dad, Kevin quickly leapt off the
bridge, falling headfirst into the choppy sea 220 feet below.
Kevin tumbled roughly the height of a 25-story
building. In the 4 seconds before
impact, he realized he’d made a terrible mistake; he didn't really want to die.
His eyes opened to a foggy hell;
a broken body racked by fierce currents in the chilling water. The asthmatic teen gasped for air as his
strength drained rapidly.
Struggling to remain afloat, Kevin
felt something circling beneath him.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter how cold the water felt or how much trouble
breathing he was having because he sensed he was about to be eaten by a shark.
But the creature didn’t bite him. It gently nudged him to the surface and held
him there. It wasn’t a shark. It was a Sea lion.
Officials say more that have 1,300 have leaped off the
bridge – only 16 have survived. Most
drown. But, within 12 minutes of the
jump, a Coast Guard rescue team got to Kevin and pulled him out of the water. He bares a few scars, but otherwise his body is
whole again.
Today, Kevin Hines devotes himself to stopping suicide. He successfully fought to get a barrier
constructed under the bridge to deter people from jumping. He became a suicide prevention motivational
speaker urging people to get treatment for mental illness and helping them
realize that suicide is not the answer.
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is: 1–800–273–8255.
Healing God, we pray for all whose lives
have been touched by suicide; especially for those who have died or tried. Give us the courage, patience and wisdom to
be present for those in distress, to offer a listening ear and hope-filled
heart. Amen
