How Do You Move Forward After Suicide?

In this emotional second Q&A episode, Granger and the team tackle two powerful listener questions — one about sharing faith with a friend who’s seen tragedy up close, and another from a man wrestling with the trauma of witnessing a friend’s suicide.

 

Granger offers raw, biblical wisdom about suffering, faith, and God’s sovereignty — from why bad things happen to good people, to finding purpose in unimaginable pain. This episode dives deep into everyday evangelism, the problem of evil, and what it means to trust God when logic can’t explain everything.

 

💬 Got a question for the next Q&A? Email: [e-mail]

🙏 Subscribe for more faith-centered conversations every Friday.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Okay, welcome to Friday Q and A. We've got some
questions queued up here. If you want to ask a question,
you could ask anything, any topic, anything at all. Email
podcast at grangersmith dot com. We'll put you in the queue.
And ant Man's got some right now.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Colby dropped an email and said, Granger, I have a
close friend that I gratefully respect and love. However, I
know that, unfortunately, if it was his time, he would
not spend eternity in the presence of the Lord. My
wife and I have prayed and continue to pray for
this salve for his salvation. Quick backstory. We're both firefighter
and paramedics. He lost all faith shortly after entering this

(00:40):
career field due to experiencing one of the most evil
situations involving a child. Recently, I took a ride with
him to his hunting spot. Long story short. Heading back home,
he told me that he's not opposed to believing in God,
but until someone gave him a logical explanation without using
the term free will or how how he uses bad

(01:02):
for the greater good to justify why a man so
powerful would allow a child to be hurt in such
a way. Then he could have when he could have
stopped it, then he could not follow or trust a
man as such. I continue to pray, and I'm also
searching and seeking for the logical reason that he needs
so that he will give his heart and life to Jesus.

(01:23):
May the Lord continue to bless you your beautiful family
and team respectfully, Colby.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I need two things. I need.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
What was the guy's explanation about giving me something besides
free will?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
What was that he said?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I see he's not opposed to believing in God, but
until someone gave me gave him a logical explanation without
using the term free will, or he uses bad for
the greater good.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
What does free will have to do with that argument?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I don't know, Okay, And my second thing is what's
Colby's question, because this is just every day evangelism.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, he says, I'm seeking continue to pray, and I'm
also searching and seeking for the logical reason that he needs.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Oh, is that that's what he's asking me? Okay?

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Well, there is no logical reason besides the fact that
faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.
So the power Romans one says that the power of
God is the gospel. The gospel is the power of
God for salvation to all who believe. So there is
a there is power in the speaking of the word.

(02:30):
And we would say, what's what's the gospel. The gospel
is that Christ came to die on the cross to
redeem sinners, to bring them to God, to save them
from the wrath of God, and was resurrected to live
and now calls all men and women to turn to
Him and believe. Now that sounds now Now Paul says

(02:51):
that the word of the Cross is foolish to those
is folly. In fact, because of a video we reacted
to earlier, I had it open up to First Corinthians,
and so it's sitting right here in front of me,
First Corinthians one eighteen. For the word of the Cross
is folly to those who are perishing, but to us
who are being saved, it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of

(03:13):
the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will
thwart Where's the one who is wise, Where's the scribe?
Where's the debater of this age? Has God not made
foolish the wisdom of the world so this is every
day evangelism. When you're outside of Christ, it sounds foolish.
So that's why he says, somebody give me a logical explanation.

(03:37):
But what he's missing, is he The logic that he's
missing is that his the default is we shouldn't believe
in that, but there's something out there that we can't know.
It's kind of the agnostic idea is that, well, there
is something we didn't come from nothing. I agree, there's

(03:59):
something you just can't know it.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
It feels like that he's like, I'm not opposed to
he says this. I'm he's not opposed to believing in God.
But he has a hard time wrestling with this catastrophe
that he's seen that involved a little child, and it
feels like that he doesn't believe that there could be
a God that would allow something like this to happen.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
That's just that that's just such the age old question.
You know, how could there be a good God that
allows bad things to happen?

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Right? But that's just a silly argument.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
It's just it's so thin because it's that idea is
a parent in every single thing we do. It's it's
in every book There is no good book unless it
has evil that's overcome. There's no good movie without a
antagonist to to to highlight the there there has to

(04:52):
be dark so that the light can overcome it. In
everything we do, you don't you know you don't helicopter
parent a child for this reason. You want to introduce
the dangerous things slowly in a controlled environment so that
slowly they can they learn to overcome it and grow.
When you work out in a gym, you break down

(05:14):
the muscles, You tear the muscles so that they can grow.
This is this is like the most logical thing to say,
I can't believe there would be a God that would
allow bad things to happen. Is such a ridiculous argument
to think that somehow God would want for you absolute

(05:34):
utopia and that you would come out of the other
side of that utopia needing and worshiping him. Not because
he needs you to worship him, because there's joy for
you in store with worshiping him, because you were made
to worship him. But part of this is I can

(05:55):
give this what's his name, Colby Colby. I can give
Colby apologetic stuff all day. Yeah, and we could always
counteract what this guy's saying, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
In the end.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
The gospel is the power of God for salvation. So
you don't have to have an answer or a logical explanation.
Because that was when I hear that. The first thing
I think is the Bible this trace it back to
the original sources. Run this out to the most logical conclusion,
and find how the Bible could possibly have come to
us in the accuracy that it we have. It's impossible

(06:29):
to not be as accurate as it is. And they
continue to find manuscripts all over the world, fragments of
them and they match it.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
That's impossible.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, but that's another logical that he could just run
that out and have another argument for that. The gospel
is the power of God for salvation. You got to
tell him the gospel and live it out for him
to see.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
David drops some email says, hey Granger, my name is David.
I have been a longtime fan and I have loved
watching your career grow. On July twenty seventh, of my friend,
an Air Force veteran, took his own life right in
front of me. That morning was normal, but after I
what I say, but a sorry. That morning was normal,
but later I saw a disturbing Facebook post from him,

(07:12):
thanking his kids and saying it would be his last.
I knew something was wrong and rushed to his house
on my motorcycle just a few minutes away. When I arrived,
he looked at me that he ended his life before
my eyes. I've never experienced anything like that and have
been struggling ever since, mostly wondering why God put me
there at that exact moment. Was there a reason did

(07:36):
he want me to see that? I'd really appreciate your
thoughts on this. Thank you for taking the time to
read my message, David Man.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
David, that is so heavy, so heavy. I'm so sorry, brother.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I wouldn't wish that on anyone, what you have seen,
and so part of this is just understanding that what
you've gone through is extraordinary and requires extraordinary care. With this,
I would make sure that you have brothers around you.

(08:12):
They could keep you grounded. Your question about did God
want me to see this? Is that what he said
something like that?

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, wondering why God put me there at the zech moment?
Was there a reason? Did he want me to see this?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
So, first of all, there's always a reason there's a
reason behind everything. Because God is sovereign, he's providential, he's almighty,
So there's always a reason. We don't always know the reason,
and more so, we don't always need to know the reason.
I think Amber was on the podcast a few weeks

(08:48):
ago and we talked about God is doing ten thousand
things and you're.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Aware of about four of them.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, so the end, the easy answer is yes, there
was a reason. Did he want you to see that? Well,
you did, and so regardless of if he desired you
to you know that that's a different question. But he
has a reason for what happened.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Seek that.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Through knowing him, and you will find your answer. It's
as easy as that. Seek him for who he has
revealed himself to be in the Bible, and you will
find your answer to your question. But don't do that
in isolation. The Bible would never ever suggest that you would.

(09:37):
You would operate in isolation good times or bad times.
Walk alongside other brothers and sisters of the faith, clinging
to His word together in unison, and you will find
your answer.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
He's going to use you the helps after you have
walked this walk. He's going to use your tragedy to
help somebody else going through a t aged probably much.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Similar, very similar. Yeah, and you're going to help them
walk through theirs. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's it. Yeah,
that's it great. Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Email podcast at granger smith dot com will answer anything
you got