The Power of Faith (latest blog o' mine)
There is a big difference between looking at a picture of the Empire State Building and actually visiting it. To have a friend tell you that it is great, that it is amazaing, awe inspiring and grand won't do it justice until you see it for yourself.
In a similar way, there is a big difference between having a healthy faith, and being told to have a healthy faith.
Many who used to be JW's, as well as a fair number of Christians, spend a lot of time on ex JW boards, looking to promote a simple thought. "Look, even though JW's didn't have it right doesn't mean that all religons are wrong. (or that Jesus isn't god)
Its really quite convenient if you are exiting. For whatever reason, one might be tempted to simply piggy back onto someone else's powerful conviction. Isn't that certainty what's missing now? When anyone leaves JW's, there is a general void where the dogmatic indoctrination used to take place. One gets so used to being told what to believe, what is right, what is wrong, that our good ol brain atrophies like a muscle. Due to a lack of use and practice, it can be quite scary to suddenly realize that you are responsible for your own thoughts and actions.
It could possibly explain why an exiting JW can be so angry at the JW organization. Look at what they could have done? College! Marry the person they were really in love with? So many options that they didn't allow themselves to take advantage of, because a group of men did their thinking for them.
It also explains a bit why some go from being a JW to another religion almost as quickly as they leave. For some, they are convinced that god exisits, for others, to believe that god exists is all they have ever known. So when they have to be on their own, and think about whether or not there is a god, or a true way to worship exists, rather then take the time to think it through, some look for another group to do their thinking for them.
That is a rather judgmental statement I guess... (apologies)
To soften that, I guess then the most important question for all of us is: Have I taken the time to think for myself? To ask myself whether these things are true that I believe in?
Do I know why I believe what I believe? Or am I once again taking some person or groups word for it?
Speaking for myself, the biggest mistake that I see stated by those who leave JW's is that they allowed this group to do their thinking for them. If that is a mistake, why repeat it?
Faith is a very powerful thing in ones life. My faith moved me to go to Gilead and become a missionary in Africa. I don't regret those decisions, as they made me who I am today. I regret that my faith wasn't my own, that it was a transplanted Watchtower template that I was asked to put faith in.
Sadly, it is not generally most religions M.O. to encourage you to think, and even to doubt, so that one can critically examine their own beliefs. The biggest enemy of dogmatic religious thought is the good ol mirror, both symbolically, and even literally.
To be able to look at yourself, and see who you really are, and to be comfortable with the person staring back at you, is one of the greatest gifts that only you yourself can give to you. It can't, shouldn't be, granted by any religion. I personally believe that if god exists, the last thing he would want is for you to take some group of people's word for it that he is around somewhere.
Any religion that tells you what to think, how to view god, and (especially) how to view yourself, works against god, not for him.
So I hope that while faith in a higher power, or god, works for you, and stirs the heart, remember that god gave you a brain too. Use it. That would show him the greatest honor, because then you would really know that which you love.