4/20

“Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.” Psalm 91: 14

Why do people take illegal drugs? For the high. But why do they want the high? Probably to escape from some kind of pain or stress or perhaps to feel good. Maybe they want to have a good time and lower their inhibitions or they want to mask reality. And so people begin to experiment with mind and mood altering substances in order to get to a different place than where they are at. Even legal drugs do the same things. We take them to mask our physical pain, balance our emotions or connect the synapses in our brain so that we can function in life. But while taking legal drugs is an attempt to get us back to our normal lives, taking illegal drugs is an attempt to reach somewhere outside our normal lives.

In essence, taking illegal drugs (or abusing legal drugs or alcohol) is really a rejection of the trust we should have in God. We don’t trust Him to make us happy, or to heal our pain or to give meaning to our suffering—and so we drug. We don’t trust that He can bring us out of whatever situation we are in or to deal with whatever issue we are facing—and so we drug. We don’t trust in His laws and His plan or His will and when we fail at living according to our own designs…we drug.

So many young people simply drug to feel something, anything. They are so lost in hopelessness and despair that the only way they can remember they are alive is to alter their reality with chemicals. And in the end, whether young or old, many people who begin down this path end up addicted to the “high” and live in dread of the crash and begin to do whatever it takes to get their next fix. Stealing, robbing, mugging—selling themselves. Whatever it takes. And in the end, most find themselves worse off than before they started down this path—many in jail and many others dead.

So what is the solution, what is the answer? It is Jesus. From an early age we need to learn to CLING to Him. Not simply learn about Him, but learn to cling to Him, like a baby clings to its mother. Like children cling to their parents when they are scared. With that child-like faith knowing that He will not abandon us, knowing that His plan is best, knowing that He wills happiness and all good things for us in this life and in the life to come. Knowing that even when in the midst of suffering and pain and grief, that He is there with us: crying with us, holding us and guarding us. Trusting that when we cling to Him in whatever reality life brings us instead of trying to escape into another reality, He will set us on a true high, a high that will never end, a high where we cannot be reached by the evil and despair of Satan. A high without a crash. A high where there will be no coming down, but only higher and higher to go.

Dear Jesus, help me to reach for Your name and cling to You so that my life may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so I can be set on high by Your love and peace. Guard me from the fear, hopelessness and distrust that can tempt me to turn away from You. Amen.