Jan. 15th WT- Go to Meetings to Fight the Blues- Eliminate other Activities

by flipper 103 Replies latest jw friends

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  Bungi Bill

  When I first began began "studying" with the JWs, I heard from them what a miraculous experience it was to attend one of their meetings;

  - nothing at all like any church service you ever attended.

  - instead, you would experience indescribable benefits.

  - and all in all, these meetings were a totally mind blowing experience.

  Then came the reality!

  - I actually thought for quite a time that there must be something wrong with me, that there was somehow a point that I was missing.

  The penny did finally drop, however - i.e. their meetings are just a rehash of a rehash of previous rehashes, with the hardest part being to stay awake throughout the entire two hours.

  As for meeting attendance being a cure for depression - best stick to Prozac!

  Bill.
• 

  Snoozy

  I WAS refreshed!

  But you have to believe that nonsense to be refreshed. Once I no longer (or finally admitted) I was no longer a believer it was not refreshing, just a chore to get out of the way.

  So, so , so, so, so very glad that nonsense is over.

  Snoozy..
• 

  WTWizard

  No wonder the witlesses are stressed. First, you have the Sunday boasting session. That wastes the whole morning, and you don't get back home until 1 PM. Then, you get another boasting session in the middle of the week, often the night before a major unit test for children. These waste the whole evening--get home from work at 5 PM, rush to get a quick dinner, race to get ready for the boasting session, and then waste 2 1/2 hours at the Kingdumb Hell. Nothing accomplished--I have printed Kingdumb Miserys from apostate sources, and most of those evening boasting sessions aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Meeting parts telling the witlesses they need to sing the Kingdumb maladies better? What a waste.

  And that's before other theocraptic activities. Go out in field circus during the weekends, you waste a perfectly good Saturday morning. The work itself is a drudgery. You prepare for the boasting sessions, you waste Saturday afternoon and another perfectly good evening that could have been used to do something else. There is zero benefit from preparing for these activities, even if you value the Bible itself. Wasting 3 or 4 hours preparing a washtowel study article that tracks the Adam-to-human-perfection story produces zero benefits. Yet, it is costing you other activities you are being told to cut back on. And, if you waste the whole 4 hours on Family Waste the Evening Night, there goes yet another evening.

  For all that cost, what is the benefit? You are told how to do sex, if you do it at all--any boasting session about marriage I could have easily skipped with zero loss. You are told about the story about how we fell from perfection--anything that details Adam's fall, Jesus' supposed ransom value, or what is soon to happen could have been skipped with zero loss (after the first time). I recall seeing in a recent Kingdumb Misery a part detailing what constitutes a "talk", an "audience discussion", and a "questions and answers". And that wasn't the only time I have seen such stupid things about "getting the most out of meetings"--and wasting time telling people that missing meetings is bad. Or, how people are supposed to conduct themselves during such boasting sessions. What a complete waste!

  Or, they will have talks about the progress from householder to baptism and beyond. People are asked to continue progressing toward unbaptized publisher, then baptism. Once baptized, you will be hounded to pio-sneer, go to Beth Hell (to be used up and thrown away), and for men to become assistant hounders and beyond. They do this on the platform as well as in private. Then, there are all the wasteful talks against having any fun--your music, groups of people getting together not for a boasting session or field circus, and watching TV are bashed. For sure, none of it is worth the time and energy of getting up and going to the Kingdumb Hell.
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  Snoozy

  WT some of the highlights of my being a witness were listening to the other wives of Elders, etc talk about their love lives..it was hilarious!

  Chasing each other around the room..having sex on kitchen tables and my favorite, putting bows where the sun don't shine...

  My next best was listening to a close sister friend talk about which brother she just slept with...

  Snoozy
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  nugget

  It was only when we were free of the treadmill that we were able to see how much stress the meetings brought with them. You had to plan you working week around the meetings, plan meal times around the meetings, sometimes you had to judge whether you would have time to eat before the meeting or whether you would have to wait until after the meeting. All the time it was clock watching. At the meeting had you got the right material, had you studied? did you need to rehearse something with someone else? Had you collected the literature? had you ordered car park tickets for conventions, literature etc.

  If you had missed a meeting did you have an appropriate excuse if anyone had asked? Were you spiritual enough to answer questions relating to meeting attendance and field service or should you reserve comments for other less judgemental topics?

  Meetings were rarely a place for refreshment either physical or spiritual and when children come into the picture they are torture.
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  Aussie Oz

  Notice in paragraph 14 how pressure is put on ALL JW's to attend meetings no matter what. It states , " When we are tired and under pressure, we must NEVER reason that the way to deal with stress is to cut back on spiritual activities. That is the WORST thing we could possibly do. Why ? Because such activities as personal and family Bible study, field service, and meeting attendance are the means by which we receive revitalizing HOLY SPIRIT. Christian activities are ALWAYS refreshing. " Translation : The stresses you go through in life are NEVER enough to cause you to miss meetings. Your stresses just aren't that important. Meetings and field service are. Speaks for itself.

  AHHHH! I remember clearly how unstressed i felt the moment i stopped all 'theocratic' acivity.

  Talk about inner peace!

  oz
• 

  teel

  So much pressure to get to meetings, 'cause surely I could try harder! (after commuting for an hour, I got home by 7:00 - guess I could just skip supper & change my clothes at the hall!)

  I actually did exactly this. I normally worked until 6:00, and the meetings here start exactly at 6:00. So I left 15 minutes early, went straight to the KH and changed the clothes there, eating only twice that day - morning and late evening. And as you may have guessed it STILL wasn't enough. There were times when I had to stay at work, and the elders took the opportunity to scold me for missing the meeting.

  Our resident self-righteous elder told me once of a "brother" who paid an other worker so he can get a free day at the day of the meeting. I had that "f* you" moment inside... that lazy sob is "spiritual" for staying home all day, and after I did much more than the majority of the congregation had to do just to get to the meeting, I still had to do more?
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  miseryloveselders

  The best part about a meeting to me anymore is when its over, and I'm on my way home. Whats ironic to me is, one of the arguments used to support the Memorial being celebrated annually as opposed to the churches doing it daily or weekly, is that it would lose the sense of importance if done too regular. I actually agree with that position taken by the WT. What kills me though, is that the same argument can be made regarding regular meeting attendance. There's nothing special about weekly meetings, especially when you've been attending two or three meetings a week for the past 30 years or more of your life. Eventually the meetings are viewed as a hinderance, and even a necesarry irritation depending on how much of it you still believe in. There's days I'm mentally exhausted after work, and the last thing I want to do is go to some meeting in order to worship the Faithful and Discreet Slave. It gets old after a while. Not to mention, meetings aren't all that stimulating.

  I've been meaning to do a spreadsheet on the past year's WT Studies, and Service Meetings, just to see how repetative the meetings really are. I just haven't found the time. I wanted to do different categories such as 1. how many times the F&D Slave have been mentioned, or 2. how often we have parts about meeting attendance, a la meetings about meetings, etc..

  To be fair, there are times I've heard comments during the Bible Highlights that I appreciated, and there's been Sunday Talks that I'm glad to say I was in attendance for. There's times I've been down, or dealing with some problem, and a good speaker spoke the words I needed to hear. Trouble is, the good that I get out of a meeting is often overshadowed by the repetative, dull nature of the majority of meetings. I'd rather put overtime in at work than attend meetings.

  One last thing, I'm a cynical, unsatisfied person as it is by nature, the last thing I need is to be around a bunch of people with personality defects. Congregations are full of brown-nosers, and the perpetually depressed. There's days I feel like Hitler at a Bar Mitzvah.
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  rocketman

  Once again, as always, they blame jws for the stresses and strains on their lives. 'It can't possibly be us (the WTS)'. You are pursuing unecessary activities, spending too much time on work and recreation!'. More cultish brow-beating.
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  life is to short

  Great thread flipper.

  I remember going to the meeting when I was at Bethel none the less and getting so sick with headaches that I would have to go upstairs in the hall to this small room and just hold my head as I thought it would explode from the pain. It only happened at the meetings never any place else and only when we were at Bethel. I just could not understand it and still don't.

  Oh and giving talks OMG I would stress out for weeks before the talk, waking up in panic attacks then I would give the stupid talk and I always said something wrong it seemed, the stupid sister who was my householder or the school overseer would always counsel like I was a five year old child who was stupid, 'you said the word a, etc to many times or you did not look at the householder right. I could never do it right never.

  Then being an elders wife I got the added blessings of getting to stay late and hang with woman who hated my guts as they got into their groups and gossiped. I was always sitting there waiting and waiting by myself with these groups of woman close by but not talking to me. That makes you feel special. It was like what was wrong with me? I did shower before the meeting. It was almost like I was df'ed or something. My husband would come out all smiles after the boy's club meeting and wonder why I was upset. Plus I was the only wife who had to work all the other wifes got to sleep in the next morning, me I had to get up at 5:30 for work.

  Oh the good times.

  LITS