“What’s the point of going on when your life’s been stuffed from the beginning!?”

Despite that cry, his family never saw it coming when, just a week later, the 17-year-old took his own life.

Jason is now one of the statistics that makes New Zealand the record holder for youth suicides in the so-called developed world.

Have you ever felt like Jason, that life is pointless, or that your own life means nothing? Is there something going on in your life right now that makes you want to check out?

Do you feel powerless to change anything for the better? Or maybe you don’t think it’s worth the effort, that you have nothing to live for anyway.

As with many of the good and bad things in life, you are not alone in feeling this way. You are not the first to have these thoughts and you won’t be the last. But be assured – there can always be life beyond the fear and pain of living.

A few thousand years back, a man called Job had a pretty great life. Then, in a series of disasters, he lost everything including his family. His story is told in the Bible, in the Book of Job.

He collapsed, he wished he was dead. He wasn’t a young man, but he’d reached the same point that maybe you, and many others, have come to. He could see no way out of his situation and cursed his life, saying: “Let the day perish on which I was born…. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it…. Let the stars of its dawn be dark…. Why did I not die at birth?”(Job 3:1-11).

Job’s friends weren’t much help, encouraging him to blame himself – he must be a sinner, they said – until one of them urged Job to “stop and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:14). Chapters 37-42 in the Book of Job provide great reading for personal reflection in times of worry or distress.

One thing in Job’s favour was his ability to cope with difficulties. He was resilient, even if he didn’t always feel it. His strength was certainly severely tested, but he won through with the help of his trust that, in the end, God would not abandon him.