Tips for Life
by Alan Bailey
Recently, my wife and I enjoyed a day walking around the Singapore Zoo. It’s an excellent setting for the animals; lush with tropical green and resplendent with brilliant flowers. Best of all, we enjoyed seeing the show on stage where various clever creatures performed. Everyone was fascinated with those animals and their antics, but I wonder what the beasts would think of us if they had the chance to look at some of our ways? Especially if they had intelligence like ours and could come and look us over.
My imagination reels at the thought of a family of monkeys looking in through my dining room window or a giraffe and an elephant pressing their noses against the glass outside the bedroom. What chatter there would be as they went their way wondering what on earth these humans get up to!
Getting into chemicals
We do some quite crazy things. We lose money that we need by gambling it away. We get drunk to celebrate an occasion. We spend extraordinary lengths of time with pointless amusements. But why on earth do we put chemicals inside our bodies, wrecking our faculties, giving hallucinations, pain, sickness and even death?
As far as I know, the animal world doesn’t do this kind of thing but strongly avoids it. Many are the examples of land animals and fish that avoid poisons by the marvels of instinct, even when the opportunity to partake seems most attractive.
Anti-life feelings
Prescription drugs are given for good reasons. The abuse of drugs is meant to help heartaches or to give new sensations. But this misuse is hugely and horribly widespread in our day. Something is sadly wrong. People are saying that they don’t like life as it is. And sure, many are immersed in unhappy circumstances.
Whatever the reason for drug-taking may be, we can be sure that it solves nothing — certainly not in the long term.
Getting back to foundations
There is also a move today toward living healthier and more wholesome lives. I want to go back a step further to our true reality: that we were created with a purpose and that purpose is good; that life is not a ‘bummer’ by necessity — it is abundantly worthwhile.
I want to make the point that no-one need feel unloved. The Lord Jesus Christ loved us so much that He suffered awful agony to save us from ourselves and from our sin. No-one will ever love you more than He does. And He has followers around the place who would love to put an arm around you and tell of their love, too.
Search and find
Substances are a dead-end. Hear what God says; “Turn to the Lord and pray to Him now that He is near. Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord our God and He is merciful and quick to forgive.” (Isaiah 55: 6,7. Good News Bible)