You can tell when you've been at the old Jehovah's Witness game too long when you notice these symptoms of staleness.
1.IT'S BORING!!! Every "new" book reads just exactly like the old ones. Adam and Eve in the first chapter and Armageddon in the last chapter. Five meetings a week make your butt go numb and your mind wanders. The voices of the brothers on the platform blur into a droning monotone. The songs are like bad Lawrence Welk recordings. You feel your mind melting into goo.
2.PRESSURE TO DO MORE!! Everytime you turn around you are being urged to do more. More field service, more magazine placements, more bible studies.....which naturally means LESS TIME for your own free choices. (What choices??) Having "free time" is made to seem like an out and out sin or apostacy. Recreation is viewed the same as fornication!! Having fun is a symptom of satanic infiltration!!
3.OBVIOUS ERRORS!! You start to see discrepencies in the doctrines. What use to be a marvellous expectation is shot down in a depressing "New Light" revelation that it was all just illusory. Things are said to be getting better and the end is nearer and the hope is brighter--but--you've heard it all before and it begins to look like some kind of---gulp! CON JOB!
4.DEPRESSION!! All that enthusiasm for the absolute Truth has become a fog of constant depression that you just can't shake!! There never seems to be a way out. You feel like a rat in a maze or a hamster on a wheel cranking away at a furious pace going nowhere! You can't get out of your financial doldrums or plan for a future--it is out of your hands. Your entire life is out of your hands! You are a cog in a wheel and expendable. The best you can do is put a good face on it and pretend to be fulfilled. It means your life is becoming a lie. You feel suffocated and want to run out of the Kingdom Hall screaming. But, you can't!
Does any of this fit you, my friend? Of course it does!! You've gone stale!!
But, there is a way out. Yes, there is! You can retire!
Unshackle the brain chain.
You can view "God" as an old friend like the teddy bear you had as a child that kept you safe and secure feeling when you were alone at night.
Or, you can go out and buy books that answer your questions as to why being a Jehovah's Witness seemed so wonderful at first and then became a ball and chain on your soul. You can do that----when you retire.
You can speak freely to anybody about anything; especially about how you really feel and think!
There are a couple of special bonuses to retirement. Want to know what they are?
1. You don't have to go to the Kingdom Hall anymore! You don't have to "fellowship" with those boring people with the blank eyes like dolls on a closet shelf! You don't have to guard your thoughts or your self-expression becaue you won't have to be around any of them.
2.You'll have the power! The power to do what? Well, remember when everybody was afraid of what an elder might think or what the Governing Body might do if they slipped up? Remember that feeling of dread? Now you have that power! Yes, JW's who aren't retired will dread you with a mighty power!! Why? Because the power of fear is a make-believe delusion in the first place and now it is your turn to be viewed wrongly has having a power that isn't really there. See how it works? They will mistakenly view you as being something powerful which they must fear, dread and avoid. Let's stop and laugh at these silly people. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
3.You don't have to waste your precious time reading poorly written books and magazines with awful syntax and imaginary beliefs! Now you can read the Great Books that have sustained mankind for centuries. You can even read non-fiction for a change and learn about how the world really works. You can read about science and math and philosophy and especially the phoney history of religious groups that claim to be the only true sevants of God (but who are really just pawns in a corporate enrichment scheme).
4.You are now born again. No, not that way! In a very real way. You have escaped a mind-control cult. You have a foundation on which to build from the self-knowledge that making poor choices in life ruins your life. You will be able to see for the first time that life is about taking responsibility for yourself and not turning your destiny over to "others" who claim great powers.
5. Finally, you will discover that life is far more magnificent than you'd ever been led to believe. It isn't really all just a lousy plan to glorify an invisible power-broker in the sky! No way. Life is a vast array of choices for each person. There is no limit to what you can achieve if you believe in yourself.
So, how about it.
Ready for early retirement?
Retirement=Slow Fade
or
Disfellowship
