Thanks Jeff!!
I agree, that was one of the best posts I have ever read! I too was appointed an elder at 26. That was 8 years ago. I was a MS on 9/11 and I remember how sick I was at the needless deaths of so many. I remember thinking it wasn't fair, and I also remember an elder telling us that it was a preview of the big A. It made me sick!
I went on though, just pushing it to the back of my mind.
I became an elder and was one for 5 1/2 years. My wife and I left together January 2009 (6 months after I resigned as an elder). We quit cold turkey and haven't been back. We have 3 young children and we wanted to make sure what we were teaching them was the truth. It's funny but we would say to each other, "If we were to choose a way of life (that we weren't born into) there is NO WAY that we would have chose this one (JW)." The elders came by and were baffled as to why we left...they said, "one day you are conducting the Watchtower, giving talks on the assemblies, and everyones favorite elder. Then poof!"
Honestly though, it was the only way we could leave...we couldn't stomach what we were hearing and teach that to our kids any more.
Here's to remembering the people who lost there lives (and their families who live on) that horrific day, and to those of us who found our lives and began to live.