The Search for the unseen
There is someone out there in the world right now, trying out a psychedelic drug for the first time in order to travel into another plain of consciousness where the reality around him warps and twists into a buffet of hallucinations and fictional delusions. He could have picked up a tab or two of acid from a local suburban teenager but, to play it safe, he decides to go down to the local Walgreen's and pick up a couple bottles of cough syrup, which contain enough DXM to send anyone on an six hour disassociation from reality. He finishes a few "trips" and thinks how great it is to escape the world around him and be able to travel to different places in his own mind and hopefully come back with a spiritual perception that wasn't already there. He is so tired of his parents and his school. He has tried religion and church but everyone in that circle just seems fake to him. He wants to find a TRUE meaning to life and believes he can do it on his own through drugs that will expand his mind.
When he comes down off his journeys, the world around him seems so different, but he can barely remember anything. He feels like he has been somewhere were no one else has. He decides to invite his friends on this amazing journey this time. He shows them how to trip and then he decides to do more for himself this time and go deeper into this new world he has found. Something happens and the trips become a weekend escape instead of going out with friends or talking to family. When he is not tripping, he is depressed.
When he is depressed, he begins to drink alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant which comforts temporarily, and then crashes him even harder. He gets tired of tripping on cough syrup after a few months and decides to try something else. He reads online how to trip off allergy medicine.
One day, he takes a bottle of 50 allergy pills, hoping to see new hallucinations like he read about online. 48 hours later, he finds himself in the local ER after surviving his first overdose. They put him in a psychiatric ward for evaluation and diagnose him Bipolar. The prescriptions for antidepressants begin and he realizes he doesn't really know who he his, and is different from normal people around.
The medication helps and fades and numbs his overly curious mind until he tries to take more of what he is prescribed. He doesn't feel a rush or see anything cool. He decides to trip again while on the medication. His family is worried as they now have a diagnosed Bipolar depressive living with them. He starts to think about taking his own life. This way, he could see what really happens after we die, and put an end to the horrible existence he now finds himself in.
He tries to kill himself by taking lots and lots of medications and over the counter drugs. 48 hours later he is back in the ER and then the psych ward. People try to help him and tell him he is a good person with a plan for his life. People tell him about God and even Jesus. But he is too selfish to listen or believe that there is a God who loves him.
----He doesn't realize that people are praying for him------
After leaving home he finds out new things to try now that he lives on his own. He discovers a way to make drugs go directly into his blood without waiting for digestion. He learns to shoot up drugs with a needle.
---He forgets about all the people that love him----
His curiosity for the unseen is diminished by his new infatuation with physical pleasure. He just wants to FEEL high, and when he is not, he would rather be dead.
---He stops searching for God again------
Overdose after overdose, the close calls with death give him nothing but frustration.
---He is waiting for the next bad thing to happen------
His family stops trusting him but never stops praying.
----He just doesn't care anymore------
He tries to stay sober and go to meetings but this "higher power" they talk about is just too vague to grasp.
----a Bible remains unread and closed somewhere in his house collecting dust-----
His parents divorce, and his Dad commits suicide. He discovers his father hanging from the ceiling the morning after he does it. This just makes him more angry at life and the confusion of existence,
----he continues deeper into addiction, and becomes a devout atheist-----
Nothing or no one can tell him to change. Too scared to try to kill himself again, he just tries to stay numb to life by taking his meds and getting drunk and high as much as possible. When drugs aren't around, the rush of crime or pornography will suffice.
-----his right lung becomes infected with pneumonia after he almost overdoses again----
-----people are still praying and come to visit him in the hospital----
A nurse tells him about Jesus. He barely listens as he is being pumped full of painkillers. The drugs are just more important than any Saviour to him now. The drugs and death are his saviour.
----He tries to move away from his troubles but after a few months is back into despair. Crack and Vodka return to comfort him in his trouble.
----His body comes close to shutting down----
Before his final suicide attempt, his mother tells him about a year long FAITH based program.
He goes having no home or penny to his name.
He is hanging on by a thread as people pour testimony and hope into his life. The drugs begin to leave his body and the dark and suicidal thoughts start to break up and fade away.
He gets on his knees and begs for God to help him.
HE GIVES UP HIS LIFE.
HE INVITES JESUS IN.
HIS SEARCH FOR THE UNSEEN HAS ENDED!
although the temptations of the world remain, the truth of the power of God and what Jesus did on the cross is far too evident to him. The Holy Spirit fills him with the power to overcome sin and to help others come to know the real truth that is Jesus Christ.
This person was actually me... but could very well be someone you know. A brother, son, cousin, or friend. It can start with a simple curiosity and a night of experimentation. The enemy is very good at what he does. But Jesus Christ is much better! Most of the world is looking for something to fill an empty space in their soul. The emptiness is being filled for them through anything from a credit card to a needle; but they all lead down to an even greater eternal emptiness.
No words can express the feeling I feel while reading this, thank god you are here today to share this story with us.
ReplyDeleteLife can slip away in an instant, and I am fully aware of this. My life went from one bad decision to the next. I dropped out of High School, got my GED, barely held onto my job in the Air Force, BSd my way through all of that.
But then the moment came when everything just came crashing down. The rock bottom. Working my way back up has been hard, at first quiting smoking, quiting drinking, excercising, they all hurt, but now I love the pain, it reminds me from where I have come and where I am now and most importantly where I am headed. Everyday I work harder and harder to be the man that those who love me know I should of been all along. My mistakes are like scars, visible for everyone to see, but they are all healed now, those scars no longer make me who I am.