I've read in more than one place that Jesus condensed the entire Bible into this one parable of the prodigal son, and that makes a lot of sense to me.
I stopped going to meetings at age 19, and when I tried to go back at 34, I didn't exactly get the prodigal son treatment. They don't like it very much when you take 15-year vacations from the slavery. They're not letting you back in so easily. They had to do the time, now you're gonna pay for not doing it. After sitting in the meetings for 8 months and developing really nice relationships with just about everyone in the congregation, I was summarily disfellowshipped on false charges after challenging the PO to please stop stumbling everyone by acting as a mysogenist and a tyrant. At the time, I was horrified that these elders, and the organization, were a reflection of the True God. I wanted no part of him or them.
I thought I was gonna be bird meat, so I figured that I would enjoy the little time I had left, and went on a debauchery spree just like the prodigal son did. Hit the beach, the gym, the bars, and the clubs, day and night, night and day. Traveled all over the place. Had women flying in from all over the country. As much fun as it was, the fear of being judged continued to haunt me. My relationship with God was estranged, to say the least. I went into the lowest depression of my life, until the day it all changed. The day I discovered the Watchtower has nothing to do with the True God.
I'm in a much better place these days. I got all that stuff out of my system, and learned some wonderful and valuable life lessons in the process.
We're here to enjoy each and every moment of life, because all God really wants from us is to let us "be". By doing that, we "become". This is our spiritual evolutional journey, which Jesus further condensed from the parable of the prodigal son down to one verse, at Matthew 13:33....
"The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three large measures of flour, until the whole mass was fermented."
So this is where I got my user name. Now I can say with absolute certainty, that the father who was welcoming his son home really is the True God, and his name ain't Jehovah.