by AK - Jeff 54 Replies latest jw experiences
This might be because now you have no meaning to life and nothing to look fwd to.
Ah, yes..... I remember the days when, wrapped within the cocoon of JW thinking, I was also able to instantly size someone up, judge them, make assumptions about them, and feel smug doing it because I had "the truth" and they, well, had no meaning to life......
Yep, quandry, I thought the statement was a little short of humble too!
Jeff
Me too Jeff. I feel no need for a middle man between me and God anymore. I am really right where I have always wanted to be with God as my creator and friend.
Good post.
This might be because now you have no meaning to life and nothing to look fwd to. You might want to check what is it that made you leave. Maybe it was the fact that you dont have the strength to overcome all the evil's doing or just that you are not into it anymore. Yet if you really say you want to replace going to the meeting with something, why dont you keep going and associating with those friends in the Hall that can help you overcome this issue.
One of the greatest "gifts" and "skill from the toolbox" in life is to be able to think differently. What's amazing to me as a non-JW is the extreme efforts that the JW fold go to become the "thought police"....reducing the infinite scope of the universe to a can of split pea soup.
My MIL has been a JW for 73 years. She has spent her whole life waiting to die on this miserable earth, so that she can spend eternity "living" in paradise. Her whole world exists in the eight blocks to go to the store and the three blocks to the KH.
To me it appears that being a JW, is like trying to live life while carrying around a 75 lb. backpack that has been put there by the WTS. The WTS tells you that the backpack that they packed for you contains all the secrets of life. You have commonality with other JW's because they too have been given a 75lb backpack by the WTS to carry around as well. Then after a while you finally figure out that the backpack is just dead weight put there by the WTS so you can do their work. After you turn your backpack in to the KH, you realize no one else in the world carries such a backpack.....and not only that, you don't need to pick up someone elses backpack as long as you live.
Maybe the real meaning to life is to live free a day at a time, in the here and now. If you do that seven times in the next week, you'll have seven more days of freedom than my JW MIL has ever had.
Cool post Jeff....enjoy your freedom!
Jeff said:
I was still wishing to replace the ritual of religion at the Kingdom Hall with some other church
I went through that same mind set Jeff at one time. People were friendly, but then the "leaders" got too pushy w/me. I was very sensitive to that coming out of 21 years as a JW. It was too much deja vu for me. I will not go backwards.
Some people do need to be w/others to worship their God. And I respect their choice. I agree with you and others who feel spirituality is far different from religion. Religions are man made. I have seen so many people use religion as a facade - when in actuality they are hypocrites.
Your post did surprise me as I know you have been involved w/a religion.
I wish the best to you and your wife and grandchildren in your care.
Love, Juni
Hi Jeff!
My experience in finding faith, as someone who was never a JW, gives me advantages different to someone who left the clone center, and has a hard time with accepting religion or an organized group like a "Worldly" congregation at a church.
Although I've always been a believer in God, before my walk, I was someone who ALWAYS drooled at the chance to debate with Christians over their faith. After all they were just believing in things printed in ink on paper that some guys wrote and translated thousands of years ago. This was my angle all the time..."how could they prove, the STORIES in the book called the Bible." Who knows what is real and not? I'd always ask them to prove it's real. It always came back to faith, as their final answer, and I would always left the debate knowing it was just their "beliefs".
For me, just reading the bible, and/or going into churches was not gonna do it for me, I had been in several churches over the years for a service here and there, maybe once or twice a year if that.
I am 180 degrees from that person now. I can only tell you to not give up on faith. Without getting into detail, my changes came only after experiences, events, answered questions, left me with only 1 path that I could see and that was in Christ. Unless you've been me, and others who have experienced what we believe to be "our" evidence, it all sounds like a bunch of malarchy, like it used to sound to me, and I understand that.
My point being that I don't have the negative influence that most of you all were left with, so I feel compelled to encourage you to not give up on God. You've just given up the mind control, that's a start.
Jeff
it is a long and winding road, as they say. I miss meeting together with other people who want to worship God. And now that I've taken responsibility for myself and feel i need to ask a minster or elder for advice on life, well, I feel safe going to a church again. i have been trying to locate a non-denominational type Church or something similar). . I have been hurt, actually destroyed in some eyes, but my spirit is still alive. , i am a very determined person, determined they will not win. .
I have heard Methodist are 'Christianity lite' so that might be an option.
weds
So as not to be misunderstood - I remain a believer in God. But my perspective on how to view Him, and how to worship Him is 180 about face from where I was just a few months back. I doubt I have reached the endpoint of all that.
I may attend religious services from time to time - or perhaps as my view changes, I may do so often, or not at all. I am not sure of that at the moment. I am just sure that my view in this area is changing quickly nowadays.
Thanx for all the wonderful comments.
Jeff
Love the ava Jeff.
And yes, open-minded is definitely the way to be.
Love the ava Jeff.
It was time to bring back the Tiger. So many of the cancer ribbons are a little confusing too. [Though I still fully support the cause]
Jeff
