My wife and I were taking a water taxi down the Swan River in Perth, and I got talking to the driver (Captain I should say) of the boat. He told me of trips he did regularly, taking special needs kids on outings. On one trip he met a 24 year old, who was brain damaged, and completely incapable of looking after himself for the rest of his life.
In his early twenties he was an intelligent young man, not far from graduating with a law degree. A wonderful fulfilling working and family life was all ahead of him. But he’d smoked a lethal concoction and now his brain was fried. He’d totally ruined the rest of his life.
What’s your opinion of legal highs? The whole issue of synthetic drugs and legal highs raises some deeper questions.
What’s the point of smoking them? Why do people feel the need to do that to feel “up”? What’s missing from people’s lives that they feel the need to get legally high? What’s wrong with people’s value system and common sense in the light of the known dangers of smoking legal highs, that they would do it anyway?
Life has its pressures for sure – I think I’ve faced more than my share. But I have also discovered there are opportunities and spaces in the busyness of life where there’s incredible belly laughing fun, and moments of blood pulsating adrenalin. These are the God-given highs life delivers that don’t have any life-altering side effects.
It’s my belief that when one has a healthy self-respect, healthy self-worth, and a deep personal sense of identity, we don’t need anything to add to that. We know that in the course of life, we’ll experience some lows, but we have people around us and a set of values and tools that will see us through those times.
Christians meet together most Sundays and there enjoy a legal high like no other! It is the experience of the love and presence of God. Unlike the short lived high that soon leaves the user of synthetic drugs feeling lower than they did before and heading for another crash, the Christian’s experience confirms and affirms our value, identity and destiny. That’s just another reason to go to a local church this Sunday.
