Greetings fellow steemians, It's always a pleasure to write to you all and this time I've decided to share my thoughts on some issues/abnormalities affecting our communities.
The meaning of the word abnormal is subjective and as so it's usage dwells on our perspective. Growing up as a young man I discovered that when you are normal in the midst of abnormal people you become the abnormal one. A friend once asked me a funny question that although sounded absurd was very puzzling, he asked if mad people have no clue that they are mad and they believe what they are doing is perfectly normal how then do we know for sure that we are not the abnormal ones? It's a funny question yes but it's very significant to the message I'm trying to pass across.
If you are in a group and your are the only person doing something different from what all the others are doing they'll make you feel like you are the wrong one and this is why good association matters a lot. An unfortunate event happened to me last year and I made some bad decisions to remedy it that brought me in contact with the wrong group of people, they tried convincing me to join a dreaded cult group that has taken the life of many youths(both the lives of their members and rival cult groups). The first move they made to persuade me was to paint themselves as normal people and tried to convince me that they are different from the way people see them to be, when that move didn't work they switched to a little show of force and tried to make me feel helpless but I was not going to be brainwashed and as God will have it I got out of the crazy situation and made sure I never came in contact with them.
The first step in persuading someone to do something evil and abnormal is to paint it in a whole different way that will make the person fail to see the abnormality in what he/she is about to engage in. Eve was able to eat the forbidden fruit in the bible because the Satan who came in the form of a serpent was able to paint the whole scenario different and by doing so he convinced Eve that eating from the tree was normal and as soon as Eve saw it that way she gave in.
Genesis 3:1-7
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselright.
Smoking and drug addiction
One bad habit that is eating deep into our society is smoking and addiction to different drugs. We have a lot of young adults in the steemchurch and it's even possible that some have walked down this path but it's not something we pray for. Over the past few years I've seen so many people turn into drug addicts and the rate has been ever increasing that now I don't get surprised when I discover or hear that someone I know to be clean is a drug addict.
I was walking with a friend few weeks back and we saw a young lad we knew from school smoking marijuana in public with so much pride. I'm not judging anyone and I'm not casting a stone on anybody but putting asides the moral implications, excessive smoking and drug addiction is bad for the health. It's almost like being a drug addict is the new cool, you can't take a bottle of coke from a friend these days because they mix everything with drugs. It's almost like people are intentionally trying to themselves. We are loosing too many youths to drug addiction and it's like nothing can be done to correct this.
Abnormality is becoming normal, people are starting to see drug addiction as cool and some will even mock you if you are not part of the crowd. Sometimes I wonder what kind of society we will raise our children if normality is not restored. In Nigeria people who mix all sorts of drugs are now called science students and they seem to be loving the name.
There is a new dangerous drug in town that is called gutter water. Omigutter (gutter water) is a deadly combination of codeine, refnol, tramadol, cannabis and water/juice/yoghurt.
However, the new wave as it is called, is a mixture of several items. There are three types under the new wave. The first is methylated spirit mixed with a Cola drink/juice or Vodka and Codeine mixed with Sprite. The second is called Lacatomtom, a mixture of Tramadol and Tomtom inside a bottle of Lacasera or Mm/msquared, which is malt mixed with Knorr/maggi seasoning cubes. The third, a lethal combination known as Jiko, is a mixture of tramadol, codeine and flunitrazepam (benzodiazepine) in a base of Hollandia yoghurt.
Thinking of these combinations is insane and I can't help but wonder why people will go to such extent just to feel abnormal. Let me drop cases screenshots of a story i read of a young man that lost his life recently to drug abuse.
I'm urging all steemchurch parishioners to stand out in whatever society we find ourselves and always hold on to what is right