Afraid of Dying?

PointBlank

I don't know if this subject has been discussed here before. If it has, could someone help me find it?

If it hasn't (I can't imagine that it hasn't), here's what I was wondering. As JW's we were taught that the dead are conscious of nothing. Most of Christendom teaches just the opposite. When I was going through the process of losing my religion, one of the most traumatizing realizations was that the promise of never dying was a WT lie. The new system wasn't going to save me.

Most people know they're going to die one day. But not us. We walked around with our heads stuck in the sand, all the while believing and declaring that of all the historical generations, ours was the special one. We were in the know. In our self-professed smug religiosity, we were convinced that we and only we (JW's) would survive the coming catastrophic end. And that contributed to a certain degree of complacency. FWIW, I believe this to be one of the WTS's most vicious/deceitful/manipulative/damaging doctrines. Can you say hope when there is no hope? Tickling of the ears and all that..

Anyway,

Losing your religion coupled with aging and/or illness somehow causes reality to set in and sooner or later we are compelled to come to the sometimes paralyzing conclusion that we will indeed die. Still, we manage to distance ourselves by pushing it into the future somewhere. It's not staring us in the face, tapping us on the shoulder.

However, there will/does come a time when we come face to face with death. It will no longer be some imagined future event. We won't be able to push it forward any longer. It's here, it's real and it's our turn. Some claim to know what's on the other side. Most just reluctantly/passively accept what's happening to them and hope for the best. To be honest, I don't think anyone can effectively and convincingly experience an imagined state (facing death). But,

If you can, try putting yourself in those shoes. Are you afraid? Petrified? Are you passive? Do you feel belligerent? Mad? Ecstatic? Hopeful? Hopeless? Excited? Relieved? Dread? What?

As for me, death no longer bothers me because I know my God and my Lord. It's what preceeds death that causes me a certain amount of trepidation. After all, who likes pain? That being said, I'm wishing for a totally selfish painless passage. :)

What say you?

PB

RR

The act of dying doesn't bother me, HOW does ... lol.

When I was a kid I use to cry when I thought about dying. When I became a witness I realized dying was just a sleep. It doesn't bother me anymore.

RR

Cowboy

I brought up the same subject a couple of years ago...

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/18553/1.ashx

I agree with RR - death is just sleep.

CB

Double Edge

No... not afraid. For me, we are eternal and death is just a doorway on our journey.

Lostreality

Yes..but yet i cant wait sometimes.

Quotes

Question: "Afriad of Dying"????

Answer: "Why, what have you heard, should I be?"

Seriously, though, yes, I find I am overcome with a sense of "time is running out" panic... and I'm only 36.

But would I prefer my old belief, would I exchange my panic of head-in-the-sand serenity? NO. Sometimes the truth hurts; the world is a scary place, and the sands of time are flowing... move your ass and make your mark.

~Quotes, of the "Having to step up my plans to take over the world" class

Golf

Some people are afraid of dying because, 'there going to miss themselves.'

Guest 77

DanTheMan

I worry more about losing someone close to me than my own death. For me it's kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop, because I've never had a close friend or a member of my immediate family die.

Wolfgirl

I was just thinking about this the other day. It's exactly how you say...we smugly believed that we were going to survive, and rejoiced at the thought of all those "worldly" people being destroyed. Makes me sick just to think of how I felt back then.

I guess I never really thought about it until just recently, that I WAS going to die someday. It was kind of a jolt, even after these past few years.

To quote a Robbie Williams song..."I'm not afraid of dying, I just don't want to."

PointBlank

Thanks for all the responses guys. Recently my MIL passed away. Something that became crystal clear was that the world of 'stuff' just fades away. It actually means nothing in the end. The only thing that matters is other people and our relationships with them. Anybody that can be surrounded by unconditional love in the midst of this event is blessed indeed. But ultimately, like most things in life, at that defining moment, we stand alone, and it's MO that that's how we face judgement. Just one on one.

Afraid of Dying?

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