What Is Our Responsibility in Life?

by cruzanheart 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Joyzabel

  Interesting thoughts, Cruz.

  I agree with outoftheborg’s statement: “ it is our duty to do the best we can do, at a given time.” When I got involved in the medical community I would hear several of my fellow practitioners (docs & midwives) make that statement, especially after a crisis event. I used to marvel that that was the standard they held themselves and others up to. Not a quota, not exacting perfunctory duties but doing the best you can in the situation you are handed.

  Unlike belonging to a high control group, being who you are, with all your talents, love, gifts or whatever you want to call them and doing the best you can is very rewarding in itself and the most human thing we could strive to do.

  Just my 2 cents.

  j2bf
• 

  mustang

  Cruzanheart

  "So here's my question: At what point do we, as thinking, reasoning humans, stand up and say ENOUGH. WHAT IS HAPPENING IS WRONG AND I WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS ANYMORE. "

  Cruz: at a point like that point in time where the Judges arose in the time of the nation of Israel. And that was when it was time to clean the rats-nest out!!!

  Mustang

  Further, all that I write or utter, is protected by religious freedom under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as the "free exercise" and "freedom of speech" clauses.
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  freedom96

  I think we need to pray as though it depends on God, and act as though it depends on us.
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  Sentinel

  Outoftheorg, I totally agreed with what you said in your post here. So many of us are caught up in trying to live our lives for others. Even then we are filled with an incompleteness that gradually eats away at us. We are sad and empty. We are full of guilt and fear. We get to a point where we reach critical mass. We don't know who we are anymore and that's pretty serious. The journey is to learn to love ourselves. To get to that place will open up the whole world with a different look. Just being able to let go and relax, to live life the very best we know how and to show love and compassion are important goals to reach for.

  We are really quite insignificant in the whole scheme of things. So many things just don't matter.
• 

  Big Tex

  because Pastor Russell wouldn't have gone off on his own and tried to interpret the Bible differently from the mainstream religions

  Well that actually would have been a good thing. Having an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventist church is not something to feel proud about.

  But still, you do make a good point. Throughout history those who have done just this, stood up and gone in a different direction, have been vilified. Think about it, Moses, Jesus, Muhammed, Galileo, Luther, Lincoln and King. In their day, among their peers, they were not held in high esteem. At best they were controversial, at worst they were trouble makers and not respected. Only years after their deaths did people begin to realize what they had to say.

  We need to live our lives by our own conscience and not listen to what other people have to say. Nina, if you had listened to what a wise elder and one of the anointed had to say, you would an unmarried woman today, old before your time. Think of all the joys you have experienced the past 20 years and you would have missed out on IF you had listened to the "wise older men".

  If Jehovah's Witnesses feel the need to hate, then I submit that says more about them than it does us. I do not find within myself to hate, not even my rapists. I do want to believe in a God that is about those feelings. I want to live my life, and believe in a Higher Power, that is full of love, joy, wisdom and power.
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  A Paduan

  It would seem that the org tries to impress upon you your responsibility in terms of rules - as if it were duty - even then, I don't believe they have the right to inform you of duty.

  As for your response-ability - that's something we learn about as we live, if we test it out - talent is not called talent for no reason.

  paduan
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  peacefulpete

  Be true to yourself and true to others.
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  Blueblades

  "When persons are in great danger from a source that they do not suspect or are being mislead by those they consider their friends,is it an unkindness to warn them?They may prefer not to believe the warning.They may even resent it.But does that free one from the moral responsibility to give that warning?"

  Where do you think this quote is from? It is mentioned in the opening pages of Crises of Conscience.It is a quote from The Watchtower magazine,January 15,1974.

  What is our responsibility in life?In writing COC.Ray feels that at least a moral responsibility has been met.What each of us will do once having read that book is our own decision.So too,I think in the answer to your question,each of us must decide to what extent we are responsible to others and our own.

  Blueblades
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  cruzanheart

  I think we need to pray as though it depends on God, and act as though it depends on us.

  I like that. I will remember it. Thanks, freedom 96!

  Nina
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  larc

  What is our responsibilty in life?
  
  I think is is a balance of our own pleasure and what we owe others, such as our spouse, our children, our employer, our community, etc. If you give too much to others, you can become joyless. If you give too much to yourself, you can hurt others. It is a difficult and fine blancing act.
  
  How much to you give or partake in short term versus long term pleasure. If you invest everything in your future, your present life is rather barren and deviod of joy. If you invest everything in the present, your long term future will be a disaster. So, what is the point of balance on this issue. Frankly, I don't know the anwser to that question.