In watching the news this morning, I saw an insert on the health dangers of smoking. A woman who smoked for 7 years had got Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a horrible, life threatening, debilitating, incurable illness caused by cigarette smoking. It’s so easy to become addicted to smoking. I remember well what led me to walk into a cafe and buy a packet of cigarettes and smoke a bunch of them.
It was about 1983. Smoking was all the rage. Smokers ruled. Phrases burned into my brain include, “light up a Stuyvesant – you’ll be so glad you did.”
Big screen, small screen, newspaper, magazine and billboard – cigarette smoking was promoted far and wide. You could smoke anywhere – aeroplanes, restaurants, grocery stores, offices, trains and even hospitals. The wards, around oxygen carried ‘no smoking’ signs, but the nurse’s tearooms were a common place for nurses to have a ‘quick smoke’.
Day after day, I would sit in those tea rooms, breathing in second hand smoke. After some months of exposure, I went away for a week and found myself craving a cigarette. On my return to Cape Town, alone and still longing for the smell of tobacco, on a cold windy winter’s night, I donned on thick jacket and in the darkness, I walked to a nearby cafe and bought a pack of 20 and a box of matches. Then I went for a walk. It was winter and a storm was brewing. Walking along the Sea Point sea front, with wind howling and rain spitting, I surreptitiously puffed away. The next day, I caught a train to Fish Hoek to see friends and made sure I got into the ‘smoking carriage’. If my friends smelled cigarette smoke on me when I got there, they never mentioned it.
I think I smoked the whole packet and then decided I was done with smoking and I never lit up again.
But it was an interesting lesson. I learned that second hand smoke can cause addiction and after that I tried to avoid it.
The woman on the news this morning had COPD after just 7 years of smoking. These days, it’s easier to stop than ever before. With patches and twisps, the opportunity is there to make a change. With the New Year coming, if you do smoke, perhaps it’s time to start gearing up for a change.
Put out the cigarette – you’ll be so glad you did.
The Bible doesn’t say you should not smoke. In years gone by many Christians smoked – Spurgeon smoked – lots of clergymen smoked. It was common practice – the dangers were not as known as they are today. When we know better, we do better.
1 Corinthians 6:20
For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂