Getting Away from It All?
HOW often we hear people speak about ‘getting away from it all.’ Disgusted with the problems and troubles of life or distressed over the materialism and pressures of today’s society, they wish they could ‘get away from it all’ by going to some isolated place. Perhaps you, too, have thought wishfully of such a course. But is that really the solution?
A young man in California in the early 1960’s became disillusioned with the normal goals and pursuits of the materialistic people around him. He started to live a “hippie” way of life, studied various Eastern religions and even attended Communist youth meetings trying to find some meaning to life. He turned to all sorts of drugs and to alcohol, seeking an escape, but without satisfaction.
Recently at a convention of Jehovah’s witnesses he explained what happened after he had turned to drugs and drink. He said that finally he and his wife came to their senses enough to realize that this was no way of life. “So we stopped taking drugs and moved to Maine hoping for a clean start,” he now says. He wanted to live in an area that was sparsely populated. “I built a house in the woods, raised a garden, attempting to live off the land, thereby becoming free from the world. Even though I lived in the backwoods, seldom seeing anyone else, I soon realized that there was no escape.” Why was that?
Before long, men with powerful machines began to tear up the beautiful woods near his home in order to build a large housing development, a shopping center and a naval base. Further, he says: “The radio news kept reminding me that all over the world people were suffering from starvation, being massacred in war. It seemed futile, no hope at all. I began drinking very heavily again and had resigned myself to death. In fact, I was drunk almost every day.”
Though ‘getting away from it all’ was not the answer, an answer was to be found. He goes on to explain: “Shortly thereafter a minister of Jehovah’s witnesses called at my home. A Bible study was begun with me. For the first time I could see that there was a hope. I quit smoking and drinking and spent time reading the Bible and publications of the Watch Tower Society. It sounded so good that I started telling others about my newfound hope.” And this hope was not mere imagination. It was well founded on the reliable Word of God, which explains the present problems confronting mankind and shows how God is shortly going to solve these problems.
So if you have the feeling that you would like to ‘get away from it all,’ do not think in terms of isolating yourself in the backwoods somewhere. Rather, accept the opportunity to learn the purposes of God as outlined in the Bible and gain the solid hope that Jehovah holds out for mankind. True, this will not magically cause your problems to disappear, any more than it did with this man. But, as he did, you can gain the strength to face them and solve them with divine guidance from the Scriptures. And likely you too will be able to say as he does now: “At last happiness is really mine, and peace of mind.”