Identifying God and true religion

by Terry 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Terry

  There is no doctrine required for kindness.

  You can't get it "wrong". There is no judgement.

  There is nothing to memorize when putting your hand out to a suffering person. The human touch on a fevered brow and the comforting squeeze of the hand is irrefutable.

  You don't have to graduate from a seminary to offer a smile and ask somebody how they are---how they really are.

  There are no grounds for debate or rebuttal in visiting the ill, the dying, the widowed or the orphaned.

  So much of the GOD I have always known and read about isn't anything but words, claims, arguments, threats and promises.

  But, lately, I've witnessed something real when visiting the local rehab.

  When people are dying or suffering and very alone it is not quotations or claims for paradise they are starved for.

  They want another human being to care....simply care. You don't have to know anything, explain some belief or ritual or be good some canned razzle dazzle. You just have to be able to love.

  If "God" is love I can tell you that learning to spend time quietly with desperately wrung out people at the end of life will kindle a bonfire of it inside of you.

  I never cared much for others beyond my immediate circle. I tolerated "others". As a Jehovah's Witness I learned to separate people into THEM and US. I never learned to give, feel or share "love".

  There was only doctrine, argument, style, content and debate. That is what passes for TRUTH: a litmus test of "worthiness."

  It makes laugh or cry now at how much time I wasted.

  So, I say to you today, if you are trying to identify God and true relgion....just go somewhere...a hospital or hospice...or shelter....and sit with another person quietly. Look at them like they are worth something. You don't need to preach. Just feel.

  A smile and a pat on the back is so powerful you'll be amzed at the power you have to heal a broken life.

  That's all I wanted to say.
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  wasblind

  And you have said a mouthful !!!!!!!

  hugs to you ((((((( Terry )))))))
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  ProdigalSon

  Thanks Terry. You've pinpointed the real reason for our existence.... to learn unconditional love (expecting nothing in return) and compassion..... in metaphysical speak they call it "service to others". It's a higher vibration than "service to self", and it determines the difference between "heaven" and "hell".
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  sizemik

  That's all I wanted to say.

  And you said it well Terry

  They want another human being to care....simply care. You don't have to know anything, explain some belief or ritual or be good some canned razzle dazzle. You just have to be able to love.

  . . . unconditionally . . . based solely on their needs . . . not your own . . . and ironically . . . you can never feel better
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  Juan Viejo2

  Geezus, Terry. You are on a roll. Can you bottle some of that talent up and ship it to me?

  JV
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  Terry

  The people most neglected by society are the ones who can't give you anything or do anything for you. They don't "have". They can't vote, or have your back.

  There are people trapped inside their own body; silent, smothered, drowning in the "alone" of solitude.

  Catatonics stare out seemingly at nothing. Perhaps they see more than we do. I've seen a twinkle ignite like the birth of a new star in a distant galaxy when

  a smiling face shines upon them and words of kindness are whispered in their presence.

  I've seen people who twitch, shrug and tremble every waking moment begin to slow and relax and turn up the corners of their mouth when greeted by name by loving voice and benevolent pat on the shoulder.

  This morning I walked down the hall at the local Rehab hospital where the very old, infirm and dying are nestled like hamsters in shadowed cages; expressionless and vague while a TV overhead babbles and jangles in the stillness like bluejays in a throng. They are spoonfed, wheeled in chairs and housed. Family seldom comes to tend them so anxious to be acquitted of the burden are their sons, daughters and, of course, unknowing grandchildren.

  For every one of these there are thousands without care at all; alone in back bedroom in some neighborhood as the world outside goes mad with noise and diversion.

  If we see them and stop to speak, smile, ask, sing to them or share it isn't US who are there.....so much as...it is a visitation from God...with the power of love radiating something unspeakably warm and invigorating into those vacant faces which tremble alive into an awareness..

  that God is there....
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  PSacramento

  Well said Terry, well said indeed.
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  trailerfitter

  Can we all reach out and give a JW a hug?........................ nice though though Terry..
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  thetrueone

  Well said Terry , you've just proved that we do not need a super natural deity to show or direct us into human compassion for one

  another. Should the almighty Yahweh be used as an example to us of this human compassion, when he murdered man, woman and

  child simply for not worshiping him ?
• 

  cptkirk

  terry you made me think

  i guess i was a maverick. i actually cared about people, never saw it as us vs. them. like i said, i guess i really was an apostate all along. i was an apostate because i actually did care, and refused the idea of us vs. them. fortunately this is one of the reasons it's easy for me to re-integrate. because people know me as me, not some zombified person that needs to refute everything based off wt logic. i've already gone to one of my calls and told them what's up. he really didn't even really blink....he knew whenever i talked to him, i was interested in talking to him, not because i was trying to count hours. he just basically said he had known they were corrupt, but i guess he didn't mind talking to me about it since i wasn't like in your face, i just talked about it conversationally.

  although i doubt i'll be singing to anyone, i dont mind holding out a helping hand though. i remember the images you speak of, my grandmother went senile when i was very young, and we would go see her at the nursing home. same scenery. atleast we have drugs to give to these people, so they can be on the moon while all this is happening to them.