Your Story

by Blueblades 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  RAYZORBLADE

  Good question Blueblades, and with an interesting twist.

  For me, I would have to say: 0

  Post JW, I did investigate other religions/churches, but got so sick of them all. I found NO solace in any of them. So I took it upon myself to acquire, my own means of attaining a relationship or personal understanding of God.

  To no avail. For me, God was dead; nor even existed. (my feelings folks)

  No god/religion/faith etc., for me has been way better. But I understand, for others, things are different. I support their decision.
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  Introspection

  Well, I don't think I can give you a number because I am not willing to assume that God is a person. It all depends on what people think of when they use the word God, in many cases I may say not at all because I already know for some people it's just a thought, and atleast I know what the witness thought is already, and there is neither a need nor desire to "know" that idea. Now I am all for this desire actually, but I think it's important to know the difference between knowing the truth of things rather than wanting to know how to fit reality into a framework which we've assumed to be the truth. It may just be that the first step is to let all those preconceived notions go.

  "I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around chinatown."

  - Woody Allen.
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  Blueblades

  From the beginning, relationships have been woven into the tapestry of our lives.We were designed to experience intimacy,which is demonstrated in the human experience.People love a God whom they cannot see and they love others whom they can see.And people have a desire to want to know others personally and so it is with God.
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  Introspection

  Blue, again I would have to say this does not apply, because relationships apply to things that are relative. God is supposed to be something that is absolute, so it just does not follow that you would have a "relationship" atleast in the usual sense. Of course, from the human perspective it is understandable, but then how can you hope to understand that which is absolute from a relative perspective? This is why I say we have to let our preconceived notions go, because if nothing else that's just going to further hinder you.
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  Blueblades

  INTRO, Then why does God initiate the relationship if it was not possible to start with.He is absolute and yet invites the relationship.Of cause this is according to the scripture,which without it is all up for grabs.
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  Introspection

  Blue, as you said it is according to the scriptures, and that of course IS relative. It's not a question of whether the scriptures are inspired, but that's just the nature of words, they're limited - and even inspired expressions are bound by the limitations of the form they take. It can serve as a pointer, but we in effect spend a long time studying the road signs instead of just going down the direction to which it points.

  Maybe this will be a bit clearer: When I say this maybe people will tend to try to pinpoint what I'm talking about, but the whole point is NOT to pinpoint. I am talking about an open perspective, whereas the approach of wanting to pin it down is very much a closed one. But it is not exactly "all up for grabs" as you say, the word "grab" actually also indicates the same idea of pinning it down. Since I am only pointing to a certain direction, this is nothing more than an invitation for you to see for yourself. The last thing I would want you to do is hang by my words. In this case, my "pointing" is only a matter of drawing a contrast between being pinned down, pigeonholing as opposed to being open. All I'm saying is just give being open a chance, which is to say just look and see, don't try to interpret, look to see what's here before you try to explain or conclude something.