America is a feel good society. We want to feel good all the time. Therefore we have a love affair with drugs – all kinds of drugs.
Some of us love the illegal variety, guaranteed to help us forget our troubles and get happy. Some love the legal variety, guaranteed to help us forget our troubles and get happy. We have drugs to wake us up and drugs to put us to sleep. We have steroids to buff us up and diet pills to reduce the buff. We aren’t satisfied to let our bodies rest and replenish when ill. We’d rather pump them full of some concoction that will keep us going. After all, we are important. We simply can’t miss that appointment, cancel that date, or postpone that meeting.
To answer this public need to keep us dancing as fast as we can the drug company coupled with the medical profession work hand in hand to supply our demand. It’s a marriage made, not in heaven, but at the bank. They learned a long time ago how to keep us happy. They just tell us what we want to hear and have us pay for the privilege. They tell us this drug will lower your cholesterol and that drug will lower your blood pressure. This product will reduce your hot flashes and that pill will enhance your libido. Are they lying? No. These drugs will do what they claim, and so much more if you consider the side effects. In fact, sometimes one of the side effects of a drug is the very symptom it is supposed to treat.
One of my favorite commercials shows a happy fellow enjoying life. The voice over says, “Be sure to ask your doctor about this blah, blah, blah, blah life changing drug.” The implication being that your doctor is far too busy to know about this drug himself so you, the patient, being fully educated through this media propaganda blitz, should tell him. Then the voice over lists the side effects, which run the gambit from a to z, so quickly the announcer sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk. Magazine ads are the same. Our eyes soak in the bold printed claims and skip the small printed side effects. It’s marketing, folks. And it works.
Now don’t get me wrong. I know that drugs can save lives, but drugs can take lives, too. Adverse reactions to prescription drugs have increased dramatically in the past ten years. In fact they are the fourth leading cause of death in hospital deaths, topped only by heart disease, cancer and stroke. Therefore we need to count the cost and weigh our options.
We can’t blame the medical industry for offering us a quick fix. Many times that is exactly what we want. We’ve decided if we can’t pronounce it, it must be good for us. We’re too busy to take advantage of the information age even though knowledge about health is plentiful. Even just taking the time to ask our doctor or the pharmacist a few questions can at least give us an idea of what we are up against. I guess it’s quicker and easier to accept things than do a little research and find out for ourselves.
Spiritually speaking, people approach the Bible the same way. Rather than read the Bible for themselves, they prefer to flounder around relying on hearsay, assuming what they have always been told is what the Bible actually says. No wonder misconceptions abound.
I challenge you to read the Bible for yourself without preconceived ideas about what you’ve heard. I suggest using a good, readable translation like The Message and starting with the New Testament because it gets right into the teachings of Jesus. You may be in for some surprises. For example Jesus didn’t come to condemn you (John 3:17). Believe it or not, He knows you inside and out, and loves you anyway. If you have questions, Jesus is the answer and the only way this society is really going to “feel good.”
If that boggles your brain just take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
