Kurt Cobain - Smells Like Ecclesiastes

Harm and I awoke this morning just like any other morning, but this wasn't just like any other morning. Harm went to the kitchen and let out a shrieking scream. I'm pretty used to this, because we had lots of strange bugs when we lived in the apartment. I thought she found a bug, but no... Goldilocks had fled the coop. The storm the night before must have been too much for her, and she jumped ship. She jumped out of the fishbowl into the sink where she met her end. Unfortunately, she must have thought all drains lead to the ocean. This one led to the disposal, but she never got that far. She was removed to take the porcelain express.

This event reminded me of a Bible Study I led a few years ago in college that discussed different aspects of suicide. Here are some excerpts and thoughts of mine on this subject. This study was in a series of lessons surrounding the book The Rock Cries Out: Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music by Steve Stockman. It is a very good book if you are familiar with the artists he writes about. If not, it is still a good read, but you may need some supplemental information to help with what he doesn't explain.

So from this book, I took Chapter 3: Kurt Cobain - Smells Like Ecclesiastes to analyze suicide.

Some Background Information:
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana rocketed to the most popular band on the planet. Less than 31 months after Nevermind was released, Cobain was dead. Several things have been attributed to his demise. At age 7, his parents divorce impacted him big time. “Since the age of 7 I have become hateful of all humans in general.” His music was detrimental to his health. The anger and screaming caused an ulcer to form in his stomach. Furthermore, he suffered from scoliosis. Thus, his guitar weight made his back pain worse. Experts have speculated that four major components attributed to his death. 1) Hopelessness of heroine addiction, 2) stomach pain, 3) emotional pain, and 4) delusion of the drugs that he was on. We must be careful not to associate this demise with Cobain’s lack of religious belief. It is wrong to assume that non-Christians are unhappy. Success is an addictive rush. So what is the point?

Two Questions:
If success can make me happy why do I need God?
If success can make me happy why did Kurt Cobain commit suicide?

Suicide
Here are some interesting demographics from the National Center for Health and Statistics



Some additional thoughts and reading material on this subject.

Is suicide ever acceptable?
10 Commandments - Thou shalt not kill.
Jesus - “Love the Lord your God…”
Numbers 11:12-15 - Moses asks God to kill him.
Judges 16:29-30 - Samson commits suicide
I Samuel 31:4-6 and I Chronicles 10:3-7 - Saul
Matthew 7:25 - Judas
Philippians 1:20-26 - Paul

A permanent solution to a temporary problem.

What should we do?
II Corinthians 4:18 - Fix our eyes on Jesus
Matthew 6:19-20 - Store Treasures in Heaven
Luke 12:19
Hebrews 4:15

Smells Like Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 1:2 - Everything is meaningless
Ecclesiastes 12:13

Everything under the sun is meaningless

Everything without God is meaningless

We need the vertical in order to make sense in the horizontal.

What do we learn from Kurt Cobain?


Let me know your thoughts.