I found some poetry online from active JW's. It's shocking how much depression, pain, and sadness is in their words. Below are a few excerpts:
I came to Jehovah on bended knee,
To tell Him of the persecution that had befallen me.
I said to Jehovah: "I can't take anymore.
Please bring soon your great day of war!"
"I endure and endure; I'm at the end of my rope.
I really don't think with much more I can cope.
It's a constant pressure both day and night.
Between the World and Satan, I don't see much light!"
Jehovah was silent as He could be
As I rattled on with what bothered me.
He lovingly listened as I emptied my head,
Then softly smiled before he said:
"I understand what you are going through.
This time of the end makes it harder on you.
If you feel as though your heart has been cracked in half,
and that living is in vane;
If all you have left is a delirious laugh,
that elusively hides the pain,
and you just need something to keep you sane,
just remember to be strong, this system won't last for long,
Armageddon's very near, and Paradise is almost here!
If you have no place to call your home,
and deep inside you feel all alone,
If your conscience has become callus as a stone,
and the sinful inclinations chill you to the bone,
Just stay faithful and hold your ground,
this old system won't always be around;
and even though this world may jeer,
it's because they blindly fail to realize,
that Paradise, is almost here!
Have no fear, for Jehovah's not sleeping...
He's aware of our suffering, our plight...
he has seen us, and he's heard our weeping
and soon he'll make everything right!
It may seem to us to take forever...
How much longer will this system be?
Do you ever feel you're carrying a load
That's VERY HEAVY as you walk down the road
Your traveling the road that leads to life
But it's FULL of problems and stress & strife.
You wonder sometimes as you're walking there
Why the stress in life seems more than your share
You want relief and it just doesn't come,
And you wish you had time to 'just have some fun!'
Some days you bear much physical pain
Other days you feel much MENTAL strain.
Into your week it seems tragedy runs
Before you know it ANOTHER ONE comes!
You feel sometimes like you fell in a PIT
It's deep and dark and nowhere to sit.
So you just lie down and start to cry
And sometimes you wish your soul would just die.
We're struggling each day, from morning to night ...
We’re beaten & driven like waves in a sea.
When we’re down under, the sky we can’t see.
We’re all pushed & driven to always do more.
Till sometimes we feel it’s such a big War .
That we cry and we long for QUIET & PEACE
To live in a world, where life will not cease.
We’re rats in a cage, we long to be FREE
Sometimes it seems we never will be.
We know our faults and get depressed,
and really feel life is a test.
He tries to make us feel despair -
Like Jehovah doesn't really care
About the good we try to do,
for the good things seem to us so few.
"Oh Jehovah, we are so weak sometimes
Our weary bodies, weaken our minds
And sometimes we cannot clearly see
That life beyond will set us free-----
Free from sadness, pain and woe
Things that make us feel so low-----
How often I have cried to you in sorrow and in pain...
with prayer and supplication, while my tears just fell like rain.
So many times not knowing how to find a pathway out
of some trialsome situations that just made me want to shout!
Many times I'm overwhelmed - like drowning in the sea...
with waves so very high that come down crashing over me.
They toss me over here, and then they toss me over there...
At times I wonder if there's anyone who truly cares.
So many things just go wrong, though I try to do what's right...
Every day lived in this system is a struggle and a fight!
Never knowing what will happen next - circumstances unforseen..
Always wishing and just hoping for things that might have been.
How sad and unnecessary!
thinker