letter from New Zealand
What do you picture when you think of New Zealand? Perhaps the idyllic scenery and breathtaking vastness made famous by the Lord of the Rings movies. Undoubtedly it’s a country that remains at the top of many people’s bucket lists. Whilst the scenery is truly magnificent, it hides a very dark truth for the people who make up this beautiful nation.
Death by suicide remains alarmingly high in New Zealand, and the shocking reality is that the incidence of self-inflicted death is highest amongst 15–19-year-olds. In a recent report by UNICEF, out of 36 OECD and EU countries, New Zealand ranked bottom in mental health wellbeing for children.
Whilst surrounded by so much beauty, why are people so hopeless? Part of the answer surely lies in the rapid decline of faith in Jesus, with over 50% of people claiming no religion in the recent census. This number is in shocking contrast to the 2002 census, where around 60% of people identified as Christians.
As we are losing our religion, we are also losing hope. Even the hope to live. During a recent sermon series on Revelation, the preacher spoke of how facing death without Jesus is a terrifying prospect. And yet the fear of death almost drives people, in despair, to seek it out on their own terms. If I take my own life, I don’t need to be afraid of tomorrow or how I might suffer between now and then. The preacher quoted the non-Christian poet Phillip Larkin’s poem Aubade. I will end here with these haunting words that surely torment many who do not trust in our only hope in life and death: Jesus Christ.
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
