Robin Williams is dead at age 63.  It was not heart disease, or cancer, or any of what we normally consider to be the ‘big’ causes of death.  By all appearances Robin just wanted out.  It is a sad thing when someone reaches that point in their life that they just don’t think that they can continue in it any longer.

Depression is a serious health issue.  Perhaps one way to battle this disease is to have a longer view on life.  Oftentimes it is easy for us to get caught up in the day to day trials of this life, where even the small things become insurmountable in our eyes.  Take Robin’s case, for instance.  Many of us would look at Robin’s career, fame, and fortune and think that he was a person who ‘had it all.’  But for Robin, the pressure to succeed and remain at the very top of his game apparently became too much for him to deal with as his career was beginning to wane (according to the news reports on the morning of August 12, 2014).

Having that longer view of life helps us to see that even though we have trials and difficult things to deal with while we are on this earth; there is a better world to come.  Understanding that there is a God who loves us, who wants us to come to Him, who wants us to obey His will for us, should give us the necessary hope to be able to tackle our daily struggles.  Paul had this longer view.  Consider all that Paul had to go through in this life,

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:24-28 NKJV).

And yet Paul’s attitude about all those trials was that they were but a light affliction to be endured for a short time (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Knowing that as a child of God that we have a better hope, a hope of what is to come when this life is over, can help us to navigate the troubled seas that we have to face while we are in this body, this tent as Peter calls it (2 Peter 1:13-14).  Let us always look to God for strength in times of trial and trouble.  Let us always try to keep that long view.  Let us have that goal of heaven in our mindset, in order to help us deal with life’s problems.  Let us never become discouraged to the point of thinking we have to end it all.