Is a High Really a High?

Blog Home CBC Home Feedback

February 25, 2019

Many people can’t stand their lives. They hate themselves, or they are under a lot of pressure, or they try to succeed in life and get nowhere. They want to be accepted or loved, and they can’t find it. They go to parties, they try to fit in, they do whatever people say to feel better, and nothing seems to work.

Then they find something that gives them a high. It makes them feel good for the first time. It helps them escape from the stresses of life. But then the high ends.

They go back to that something to get that high again, but for some reason that exhilaration, that rush, that serenity, cannot be reached.

What happened?

Before we look at the big picture, we need to be real about this matter. Everybody experiences the above drama. Dope-addicts and alcoholics get the stigma of being the only ones with this “disease.” But it is not a disease. And neither are addicts some kind of inferior life. Everybody has experienced some kind of stress and has sought some way to end the pain.

The God of the universe says about mankind, there is none righteous; no, not one (Rom 3:10). Observe carefully, that everyone has his or her own way to escape pain. Some go to the refrigerator. Some go to sleep. (In extreme cases they may black out.) Some watch TV. Some play with their cell phones. Some surf the Internet. And some bite their nails.

Let’s look at the big picture, not just a portion of it.

In the diagram above, the top horizontal line represents the ideal life God provides for every human being here on earth. The overall chart is a timeline of your life and makes an assumption that you have been living this wonderful ideal until the moment pain came on the scene. Maybe your finances are out of control. Maybe your best friend is out of control. Maybe guilt has eaten you or worry has taken over you. These stresses are debilitating.

So what do we do? We grab a hold of anything to relieve us of the pain associated with those problems. But the high does not relieve us of the problems. So when the high wears off, we now have the original problems plus all the consequences from the previous high added on top. Now life is worse than before the high.

Wouldn’t life be better to resolve the problem that produces the pain? The answer is yes.

Now for the true statement that people have been craving to know: “Remove the pain, and there will be nothing to medicate.” Another truth with tremendous impact follows: The highest “high” is lower than the lowest low experienced in the “Ideal Life.”

The best way to remove the problems and the associated emotional pains is to follow God’s prescription for those problems. Different blogs on this site address many of the different issues. May you experience God and His power to the full!