by truthseeker 41 Replies latest jw friends
At least jw geezers deserve the title "elders" getting genuinely old, -- not like the Mormon baby faces with their engraved "Elder LDS" name ids.
It must be very troubling for all the over 70s to admit that they have been fooled, so they keep up stubbornly with the pretense.
I'm so grateful to be out of the JW religion. I got out while I was in my late 40s. I am retired now. I am religion and doctrine-free!
Everybody is going to get old, but at least I won't be doing it sitting in a Kingdom Hall. What a waste of a person's life-force. The clock is ticking.
I have no desire to drag these die-harders away from their religion. I'm just glad I am no longer there - I only hope the religion is seriously exposed. Something like the Royal Commission happening in the U.S. would be nice! But I doubt it.
Just glad I am NOT sitting there like a chump anymore!
My mom is 79 and she is resigned that she would see the end. I was the youngest grandchild, so many of my cousins are between age 50 and 60 and they thought that the end will be in their prime years. Their mom, my JW aunt is dead for 15 years, and they still maintain her bedroom and all her clothing because she will be resurrected shortly. Two of my cousins are elders and they think the big "A" is just behind the corner. They told my mom last month that she is wasting her time to go for hip surgery in the fall, because it is 101 years since Jesus rule and reminder her that while she is on surgery and recovery, she would miss a chance to jump into the arc and survive Armageddon in THIS year
This is very much like my story and thousands of others. We were made to believe in the 60's and early 70's that we would not die in this system but we would all walk hand in hand as a family, into that new system. My parents both passed away in the last few years. They were both in their nineties. I got the feeling that talking to them they resigned themselves to the fact that they would die in this "system". So sad that they were robbed of a potential full life only to follow a dream. They were content and came to the reality that they would die. I am sure it did affect their faith in a belief system that mislead them but were in denial. They were happy and content to attend the meetings and associate with their JW friends and relatives. I say whatever made them happy in their finale years was what was most important.
They are so ingrained in this cult they don't know where else to go. They do not have "worldly jobs, worldly friends, etc." If they left today they would have NOTHING.
^^This is what I've said about my mum.
However she just took early retirement at 63, sold up her house near London and bought a cottage in North Wales. Not married, up in the middle of nowhere, doesn't drive. I'm being shunned so I have no real answer as to why she moved.
It strikes me as strange though because 20 years ago when I left nearly all her JW friends would have been down south. I do wonder why she moved. She rang my wife the other night. Despite shunning me she tries to keep in contact. Wife put her on speaker so I could hear her (she didn't know I could hear her). She sounded happy. Happiest I have heard her in a long time and yet she just moved away from all her friends. I'm puzzled.
His father said that "Since I had believed this long, and lived this life this long, what else can I do?". Deep down he recognized it was probably all for naught, however at 70+ years old, could not face that reality. Very sad, and very typical of those in this age group.
D4D sums it up perfectly. How does anyone face the fact that have wasted their lives - especially after criticisizing the churches of Christendom and "worldly" people for leading futile lives? How does anyone look themselves in the eye after having been raised from birth and now well into old age?
You don't. You go trudge on. You tolerate yourself spouting the same old crap. Or, if inactive but attending meetings, you tolerate listening to others spout the same old crap.
You dare not change the channel;. You dare not change the bedsheets, You dare not do anything that will disturb you. You are still alive but you are done. You are a perfect JW.
Downright depressing this topic! Some of us feel we got out too late. And as has been said the clock is ticking. Wasted life and opportunities serving "wholesouled."
With lessons from bible drama's like " beware of loosing faith by drawing away from Jehovah. " what comes to my mind is the part where they said Moses was taking a long time to come down the mountain... Make for us a God." or in the wilderness "3 days already! how much further do you think we have to go" answer "only Moses knows." "many died due to their lack of faith. " And now many have died living on this misguided hope!
I am imagine that is also in the minds of the older ones with so much talk during their life time to " have faith, don't loose hope... Others have fallen by the way side."
How does one seek to wake up to that nonsense and make a new life at such old age with no real foundation to go back to! :(
Very Great cost indeed. The one who studied with me in my twenties died in his eighties, I remember him telling me how close the end was... And so did the one who studied with him... and so on.
D4g said it- I believe a lot of it has to do with missed opportunities, (or what is known as the "sunk cost" fallacy), where someone that spent their lives chasing a belief at great cost to themselves,
Searcher:
Active J.W.'s are in two camps IMO;
1) The end is so near you can almost smell the paradise
2) Just live life each day - if the end comes, it comes. If not, I have the resurrection hope.
I always felt like those on #2:
Having known of past 'unfulfilled expectations' (back then I didn't dare calling them what they were - false prophecies) and also having in mind that Jesus said that no one could know when the end would come, I've always been less than overhyped thinking the end was nigh. That worked out in my favor, I was able to be less deluded.
Eden
