Building Bridges

There is a story of a man who felt such despair about life that he climbed a bridge to attempt suicide …

A policeman came along and tried to persuade him to come down. Finally, in desperation, the policeman said, “Let’s take ten minutes now. You take ten minutes to tell me what’s wrong with the world, why you want to kill yourself, then I’ll take ten minutes to tell you all that is right with the world and why you should go on living.”

After each had taken his ten minutes, the two joined hands and jumped off the bridge together.

This Age of ours has been described in many ways by means of labeling. It has been called the “Nuclear Age,” the “Space Age,” the “Age of Revolution,” the “Post-Christian Age,” among others. One label being used more and more frequently is the “Age of Despair.” And certainly if we read some of the popular literature of our time, we find an increasing…