It’s that time of year where sickness abounds and every germ, virus, and bacterial infection seems to be in search of a parasitic host. Kids at school are sneezing and coughing, sharing their crud with others. Even those who swear that they “never leave the house” will come down with a mysterious bug and wonder how it could have happened. The most ironic mystery is that the germaphobes who use hand sanitizer like lotion and wash their hands incessantly also come down with sickness, sometimes at a higher rate than those who throw caution to the wind and traverse freely amongst the sick.
If you’re tired of illness and want to go to a virtually germ free part of the world, I might have found the answer. The location is essentially free of pollution and dust, and the air is fresh, crisp, and clean. It is believed that the airstream begins in this southern location and flows northward, carrying all airborne pathogens away from this utopia.
If you get a job in this location, you will get to live here for free. If you’re just wanting to be a tourist, depending on the travel company you’re with, the cost of the excursion could be anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000.
There are some features to living in this place that might not be appealing to most people. Approximately 150 live here during the summer and only about 50 during the winter. You will live in close proximity to one another and act as a community. Each day, you will only be able to have Internet access for 4-6 hours. You will get two showers per week and they can only last two minutes.
Now, if you are weighing the pros and cons and have decided that you could adjust to the cons, let me give you one more vital piece of information. Summer temperatures do not exceed -18OF and the winter temps will go down to -76OF. One time, though, the summer temp reached a blistering 9.9OF but the winter low was -117OF.
Welcome to the South Pole!
Jokingly, one Arctic explorer said, “It was so cold where we were that the candle froze and we couldn’t blow it out.”
“That’s nothing,” said his rival. “Where we were, the words came out of our mouths in pieces of ice and we had to fry them to hear what we were talking about.”1
After reading this, I think I’d rather have a stuffy nose and barky cough for a few days rather than escaping to a germ free environment. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side – or in this case, whiter!
Many times, we look at our world and wish for a place where we could run and hide. We want to escape the evil and wickedness of society. Paul told the church in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: (10) Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.”
It’s impossible for us to go out of the world and escape what’s around us. In fact, it really shouldn’t even be desirable. Notice how Jesus prayed for us in John 17:15. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” If it would have been advantageous for us to be taken out of the world once we were saved, don’t you think Jesus would have asked the Father to do that for us? Instead, He prayed that we would be kept from the evil, specifically the evil one.
Think about this. Suppose the moment someone trusted Jesus as Savior and was born again that they were immediately raptured out of this world and into the presence of God. Saved and woosh! Home in Heaven. Who, then, would have witnessed to you or me?
We do need time to get away to refresh, recharge, and refocus. We need times where we must sponge the ick of the world off our souls. But it was never intended that we would stay away. Escapism is not an option for the child of God. Instead, our mission is laid out in Titus 2:11-14. Think about these words as you go through the day, especially if you are 
sniffling and sneezing.
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Read more about this place at https://wandereatwrite.com/life-at-the-south-pole-station/
1https://bible.org/illustration/how-cold
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