Speaker: ED ALGIN from Jehovah's Witness

The September 1987 OKM state:

“The Watchtower and Awake have offered fine information and advice on dealing with medical problems and upholding God’s law about blood. They have also had scripturally balanced articles on fears, depression, and other emotional disorders. These articles have been provided to inform, but they do not endorse certain types of diagnoses, therapy, doctors, counselors and treatment centers, as personal decisions must be made on such matters.”

So, in harmony with this, our talk is not designed to endorse any specific treatment or diagnosis; nor is it designed to promote anybody’s private material. In fact, almost all of the quotes we are using are straight out of the Society’s publications.

With that in mind then, What is your anxiety? Are you unemployed? Or seriously in debt? Or are you or a loved one afflicted with a serious illness? Maybe your marriage is under a strain at the present time. Maybe you are single—looking for a mate—to the point of being anxious over that; or perhaps you are anxious to become an elder or ministerial servant in the congregation and can’t get the appointment yet. It is causing you anxiety. Maybe a member of your family has left the Truth. Maybe your anxiety is guilt over some past event, some mistake you made. You can’t forget it. You can’t forgive yourself. Maybe you worry excessively about the future, the outcome of certain matters. Or maybe you have feelings of worthlessness, inferiority—but now they call it “low self esteem.” That can cause anxiety. Maybe it is the people at work or at school that make you anxious. Maybe your anxiety is a spiritual one, struggling to build up a necessary spiritual quality or to overcome a flaw; and maybe your anxiety is something that I haven’t even mentioned. It might even be something unique to yourself. Whatever it is, I am sure there is little or nothing you would not do to rid yourself of it , or at least minimize its force and its intensity. And the good news is, you can do it. It is possible. Now how? There is a unique and infrequently read scripture in the middle of your Bible. We don’t read it much, but the Society has used it and explained it. Once you have read and understood this scripture, you have in your possession a most powerful weapon with which to fight anxiety and unhappiness of every sort:

Proverbs 15:15

As we read it, note the two opposite individuals identified here: “All the days of the afflicted one are bad; but the one that is good of heart [has] a feast constantly.”

There are the two individuals: the afflicted one; and the one who is good at heart. The afflicted one is the person with a negative or unhealthy viewpoint towards life, especially his own life and the things that have happened to him; and the one who is good of heart is the person who has a healthy , positive viewpoint towards life. What makes the scripture unique is this—most of us are not used to thinking of life in that way. Most of us think in terms of conditional happiness. That means, I’ll be happy as long as things are going well for me and, when things are going fine, I feel good. But when problems come into my life; now I feel worried or anxious or depressed or afraid or guilty,” and so forth.

In other words, we make our happiness dependent on having no problems. We make our happiness dependent on things going right for us all the time. And yet, only the person who learns to be at peace with himself amidst problems is going to be a happy individual – good at heart. And he will have a feast constantly, like the scripture says – even when things are not going well for him; because he will have made his happiness dependent on something other than external circumstances. In other words, happiness is an inside job. It has little to do with where you live, whether you are rich or poor, sick or healthy, young or old, married or single, elder or ministerial servant, pioneer or publisher. It has everything to do with thinking; learning scriptural, healthy thought patterns that make us good at heart. So when you and I encounter problems that tend to make us depressed or worried or anxious, let’s not give in to self pity, regret, guilt or the blaming of others, because as long as we give in to those things, we will continue to be miserable. Instead, let’s ask ourselves the productive question, “If I cannot improve my situation—or better yet, change it – if I can’t do those things – then what can I do mentally to make myself as reasonably happy as I can be under the circumstance? I would not choose to be in this situation, but given that I am in it, how can I make myself good at heart? How can I discipline my thinking so as to have a feast constantly?” Now that question is an anxiety killer.

If you want to read more about Proverbs 15:15, here are some references you can jot down: Watchtower 1976,p.69& 320. Awake September 8, 1981,pp. 8&9

Now at this point, some of you are thinking, “Nah, it’s impossible. Nobody can be happy in the presence of problems. Not while his problems are still unresolved and unsettled, no matter how he thinks.” Now, I am thinking of a person who can do it, who has done it many times. A person who knows how to remain happy, even when things are not going well. He has had a number of serious concerns come his way – some affecting his loved ones, others affecting him personally – throughout it all, he has maintained his joy and his tranquility uninterrupted. You have probably guessed. I am thinking of Jehovah himself. But think about that. If you or I faced a circumstance similar to Jehovah’s, how would we feel? What if someone in the congregation accused you of doing something seriously wrong, something that you could be disfellowshipped for? You know you are innocent, but everybody else wonders. The elders are making an investigation. Some of your friends wonder about you. Most of the congregation at least have their doubts, and many of them are convinced you are guilty. Can you imagine how troubled you would feel? Can you imagine how unsettled you would be until you were proven right? Until you were exonerated and everybody understood once and for all that you were innocent all along? But what if that exoneration did not come right away? What if the situation dragged on for several weeks or even several months? Day after day, living with that? What about 6,000 years? That is how long Jehovah has lived with his name and reputation unfairly in question and with many individuals believing him guilty. And his name is not vindicated yet. Is he postponing his happiness? Is he saying, “I won’t feel settled until my name is finally vindicated?” Not at all! Jehovah is concerned and he is determined to vindicate his name, and he will, but he is not postponing his happiness until his name is completely vindicated. He is happy now, while his circumstance remains unsettled. He is not anxious. He is not depressed. He is not worried. He is not thinking thoughts – variations on the theme, “Poor Me,” or “If only Adam had not sinned,” or “What if my prophesies never come to complete fulfillment? What if the Devil is right? I won’t feel settled until this whole thing is over with.” Not Jehovah. He doesn’t think that way.

And if Jehovah can remain happy even amidst external pressures, he can help us, who are made in his image, to learn the same kind of unconditional happiness. Granted, we are not perfect like Jehovah. We are not almighty, but we can make a lot of progress in that direction if we work at it, because we are made in Jehovah’s image, and we do have his help. So let’s get specific. How is it done? How can we take that Proverbs 15 Principle and apply it to the specific anxieties that you and I face in our daily life? Let’s take one anxiety at a time and explore it.

Worry

We will start with worry, and please don’t confuse worry with a healthy concern for anything, for a problem even. If you are concerned about a situation and that moves you to look into it with a viewpoint of, “What can I do to tackle this and solve it and handle it?” excellent. The question is, what if you have done what you reasonably can with a situation and the worry still grows in your head, and you are telling yourself, “I will have no peace until this whole thing is over.” Now at this point, the answer becomes to get control of your thoughts and emotions. How? Let’s turn to PHILIPPIANS4:4-7 .Paul says, “Always rejoice in [the] Lord. Once more, I will say, “Rejoice!” Let your reasonableness become known to all men. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious over anything.” Or, as the New English Bible says, “Have no anxiety, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God; and the peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.” So, yes, the scriptural direction here is to go to Jehovah in prayer, leave your problem with him, ask Jehovah for the peace of God to be with you in the meantime while your problem is still unsettled.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Well I know that. I have been in the Truth a long time, and I know that Jehovah going to be actively interested in the personal, unique, relatively minor matters that drive me crazy? The problems that I face are not directly related to the vindication of Jehovah’s name or the preaching work, so my problems must be very small to Jehovah. How concerned could he be? Or what about myself?”

You know, any of us may reason, “Look I am not on the governing body. I don’t write the Watchtower. I am not in full-time service even. Am I significant enough to Jehovah to merit his intense interest when I pray on a personal concern?”

The answer is , nothing has ever been too small to merit Jehovah’s personal interest. To illustrate that, think about something unimaginably large, like the universe. The universe is huge. There are 100 billion galaxies in the universe; probably more than that. We are just talking about what man knows. A hundred billion galaxies. Two hundred billion stars just in our galaxy alone. How long would it take you to get from our galaxy to the next nearest one? Going at 186,000 miles per second? It would take 1,400,000 years just to get to the next nearest galaxy; and there is 100 billion of those things out there. The universe is unimaginably large, and in the universe we see reflected Jehovah’s perfection, his precision, his interest. When he put the universe together, you could tell – well he wan’t a perfectionist, because that is a negative term – but he really applied his perfect ability, his interest and his precision. Clocks and watches are timed to the universe. Plans are made because man knows that those heavenly bodies are precisely timed. Jehovah is interested in those large things.

But now, think about something unimaginably small, like the atom; something you can’t even see. Now, the atom is small. You say, “How small is it?” The atom is so small, that there are more atoms in one drop of water than there are blades of grass in the whole world. But now, when with aid you look at the atom, do you find Jehovah doing sloppy work now? As if maybe he said to Jesus in the creative process, “Now listen, this thing, no one is even going to see it, it is so small, so let’s just slap it together real quick, and we can be a little sloppy now.” NOT A BIT. In the atom, you see the same perfection, the same precision, the same interest that you see in the universe. In fact, in each atom, particles meticulously orbit at 10,000 miles per second.

What interest Jehovah has in something so small. It just illustrates, though, that you and I can go to Jehovah in prayer, and perhaps we feel small and insignificant like an atom. We may feel that our problems are insignificant. We may feel like those problems are big to us, but to Jehovah, they must be like those little particles whirling around in the atom, and yet Jehovah is interested enough to get actively involved in the things that we pray about. He will.

But if you ever start to approach Jehovah in prayer and doubt or feel that perhaps he is not interested, something you can always remembers is to mentally review all of the scriptures where Jehovah COMMANDS you to pray, and remind yourself that Jehovah did this voluntarily. You know the scriptures: Persevere in prayer. Throw your burdens on Jehovah. Throw your anxieties on him, the One that we just read, in everything. Paul said, IN EVERYTHING make your petitions known to Jehovah.

God himself had those scriptures written. He could have made another arrangement if he didn’t want to be bothered. That’s the way it’s done. In a human organization – let’s say a large business organization – you have the man on top of it all, the president. He delegates as much as possible to his subordinates so that he can spend as much time as possible handling the large issues, the issues that are so important that he wants to have his fingers in it personally. He doesn’t want to delegate these matters. But everything else he delegates. Jehovah does it that way too; running the largest organization in the universe; and, yes, he delegates. He has us preaching. He has delegated the Messianic Kingship to Jesus and the 144,000. But there are matters that Jehovah considers so important that he doesn’t delegate them. Not even to Jesus. And one of those is your prayers. He may delegate the answer to it, but he wants those prayers directed straight to him. That is how important Jehovah considers your prayers. Again, it was voluntary. He had a choice. He did not have to set it up that way. Jehovah could have made an arrangement: “Listen, when you are praying at your conventions, when you are praying as a group, direct them straight to me; but where you as individuals are going to pray about your own petty concerns, I will give you the name of a certain angel whose job it is to listen to your prayers.” That would have been a loving arrangement. You know the angel would have had the power to follow through, the interest. It would have been a loving arrangement. But Jehovah didn’t do it that way. He set up the arrangement and said, “Direct all your prayers to me and in everything petition me.” Voluntary. And he knew what he was in for when he put those scriptures in the Bible. Yes, he knew that there would be individuals in his organization – thousands! – praying to him all at once over small matters; matters that are large to his servants, but to Jehovah, they barely relate to the universal concerns that he has on his mind. He knew that was what was going to happen. He set the arrangement up. He is obviously interest.

Jehovah will help you with anything you trust him with, anything that affects you spiritually, but we need strong faith and a personal relationship with Jehovah to supplication, and confidently leave that matter with Jehovah and cease to be anxious. Yes. That takes a growing faith. But if you want to read more about prayer and worry, here are two good study articles that you can research: Watchtower: November 1, 1980,p.13 Two study articles.

GUILT

Let’s move on to another source of anxiety, namely GUILT. Guilt can be such a portable thing, and sometimes we can be run by guilt in the smallest of things. You know, maybe we are cleaning the house and we really feel, you know, “I really should be doing personal study. We read in the Watchtower last week how important it is to do personal study, and that is what I really should be doing right now.” And then we are studying we say to ourselves, “You know, I really ought to be out in the field ministry”; and when we are out in service, “I really should be spending more time with the children”; with the children, “I really should be cleaning the house.”

It goes around and around, and it doesn’t let go. Guilt is tenacious. It’s not always small matters that drive us to guilt. We may have made some large mistakes in the past and feel guilty about it. We may find it seemingly impossible to forgives, but we can’t forgive ourselves. Well, let’s not confuse guilt with godly sorrow. Remorse – godly sorrow – is a positive emotion. Guilt is a negative emotion. Godly sorrow looks ahead. Guilt looks behind. Godly sorrow is temporary. Guilt threatens to last forever. Godly sorrow attacks the mistake you made – the sin – and causes you to hate that sin. Guilt attacks you personally and tries to get you to hate yourself. They are different.

Here is how godly sorrow works. We make a mistake. We commit a sin. Now we feel remorse in the proportion to the seriousness or gravity of that sin. Remorse does not feel good. It is not a pleasant emotion. But it is positive. It is forward moving, and it is necessary for forgiveness. So yes, we feel bad. We feel the remorse. Next we go to Jehovah in prayer like David did, and from our heart we pour our hearts out to Jehovah, and we tell him how we feel, and then we start to take practical steps to make sure we don’t keep doing this wrong over and over again. We ask ourselves productive questions like, “Listen. What was I doing that weakened me so that I made this mistake? Was I associating with the wrong people? Was I viewing a bad type of entertainment? Was I neglecting the field ministry? Or meetings? Or personal study? Or prayer?” And then we make changes to build ourselves up spiritually and to make sure we don’t fall into a pattern of wrongdoing. If the sin we committed was a disfellowshipping offense, then we also enlist the aid of congregation elders. And then, gradually, the feelings of remorse leave. They wear off. They go. There may be a scar, a healthy memory that keeps us from making the same mistake again, but those feelings of remorse gradually go.

The big question is : What if they don’t? The big question is: What if you have done what you can to right your wrong, but those guilt feelings remain? What if these continued memories from the past are not simply healthy reminders to avoid a repetition of the wrong; but instead, they are demoralizing thoughts that weaken your confidence in Jehovah’s promise to forgive. What if you feel harassed by guilt?

First, identify the source. Where are those guilt feelings coming from? From Jehovah? Or from your imperfect mind and mine. Where is it all coming from? Let’s read ISAIAH1:18. This should put that question to rest. Here, Jehovah plainly states his position on the matter of forgiveness. Isaiah 1:18 says,’ “Come, now ,you people, and let us set matters straight between us,” says Jehovah. “Though the sins of you people should prove to be as scarlet, they will be made with white just like snow; though the should be red like crimson cloth, they will become even like wool.”’ Jehovah said even if our sins are scarlet and crimson, he will forgive them. Scarlet – bright red. Crimson – deep red. The worst of sins. Jehovah promises he can forgive – he will forgive – if we are repentant. And he says he will make us white like snow. What does he mean by that? The insight book tells us that Bible writers did not have access to the large vocabulary that we have today. In this area of colors, today we have separate words for every color under the sun; every shade of orange has its separate name; every different kind of blue; every sort of green; each has its own name. The Bible writers did not have a vocabulary of that sort. So, what they would do is make a comparison. Green like that grass. Now you know what kind of green they are talking about. It could be blue like the sky or blue like the night. Two different kinds of colors there.

Here, Jehovah says, “white like snow.” What does he mean? Under the Mosaic law, in the book of Leviticus, Jehovah talked about reddish white and yellowish white. There is a difference. To illustrate, let’s say you are eating pizza and, like everybody who eats pizza, you are wearing a white shirt or a white blouse. And like everybody who wears a white shirt on pizza day, you spill it. Everybody laughs, and it is embarrassing, and you are a little frustrated. And you go home and you try to get the spot out; and what if that spot just doesn’t come out? It comes out partially – but what are you stuck with now? Reddish white. You are not going to wear that shirt again. It is only going to remind you of what happened. People who were there see you wearing it – “Oh, yeah. That shirt. I remember when that happened!” You are not going to wear it again. But what if you went home and got that spot out clean. Now your shirt is white like snow. Sure. You will continue to wear it. It is a thorough job. And that’s the difference between reddish white and white like snow. We are talking pure white, and Jehovah is saying that, when he forgives, he does a thorough job. Not a reddish white forgiveness. Now a reddish white forgiveness would mean, “Yeah. You are forgiven. You can have everlasting life – BUT – I am going to remind you forever about what you did and make you regret 1,000 times over that you ever did. Even after you have learned your lesson. You are going to be miserable.” Jehovah doesn’t forgive that way. He forgives white like snow. Complete forgiveness.

True, it takes time to live down a sin. It takes time for the effects to wear off. Again, that is all conditioned by the gravity of the sin. But, in time, it leaves – for white like snow. The Society understands the principle. On a regular pioneer application, or even a Bethel application, there is a question on there. It says, “Have you been disfellowshipped or put under judicial restrictions in the last five years?” Now, what if the person filling out the application was reinstated, let’s say, six years ago. How does he answer that question? He doesn’t say, “Well no, but six years ago…” All he writes is “No.” And he sends that application to Bethel, and the committee or the brother who approves his application for full time service NEVER EVEN KNOWS that he was once disfellowshipped. It makes no difference now. He is white like snow. The past is gone.

In fact, it has been said that the past is something like a rear view mirror. It is something that we should take an occasional glance at to make sure we are still on course, but it is not something we should gaze into for long periods of time. That would head us for a crash. So Jehovah does not harass us with guilt. His forgiveness is complete. And, if we find ourselves harassed in that way, after we have done what we reasonably can to right our wrongs, then the source is our imperfect minds. It is not coming from Jehovah.

Back to the big question: What if we know all this? We have done what we can to right our wrongs, but the guilt feelings remain anyway, and they grow. What can we do? And the answer is, again, to get control of our thoughts and emotions. How can it be done? PHILIPPIANS4:8 again. Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern., whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is, and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things. The scriptural direction here is to fix your mind on thoughts that are healthy and upbuilding and off

of the thoughts that produce feelings of guilt.

Some of you are saying to yourself, “No, That’s too simple. That’s too easy. It would never work on me. My guilt complex is much too complicated and deep to be resolved simply by thinking about something else.” Before you write off PHILIPPIANS4:8 as impractical, think about this: In recent years, many doctors have reached the conclusion that our feelings are produced by our thoughts. Every feeling that you have – guilt included – is first generated by a thought. Therefore, if you learn to control your thoughts by conscious and forced effort, you can control your feelings. For example, Dr Bruce Baldwin says this, “One of the recent major breakthroughs in mental health lies in the discovery of the fact that emotions follow thoughts, rather than vice versa.” He says, “From time to time, take a moment to listen to your thoughts, and if they are negative, cynical, angry and pessimistic, it is little wonder you feel depressed. By consciously changing your thoughts in positive directions, even if it is a bit mechanical at first, you begin to break some of the thought disorders and help yourself feel better.”

Dale Carnegie puts it simpler. He says, “Everybody in the world is seeking happiness, and there is one sure way to find it – by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions. It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy, it is what you think about.”

Shakerspeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

That is what authorities on mental health have said about this matter. What theocratic direction do we have? Well, we just read a scripture that tells us to keep out thoughts on matters that are healthy and upbuilding. Perhaps you also remember the apostle Paul said, “Keep your minds fixed on the things above.”

Now, the September 8,1981 Awake,p.9 says this, “Depressed individuals must work hard to correct their thinking and guard what they ponder on.” And it very realistically admits, “This can be far easier to say than to do.” But when these come to mind, it says, “Quickly dismiss them. Dwelling on them will lead to low self-esteem, deep depression.”

The March 1, 1983 Watchtower, pp.6&7 says, “Actually, whether we are truly happy or not depends greatly on us. That is why we need to have our thoughts under control.” If we find ourselves in an unhappy frame of mind, we might well ask, “What was I thinking about just before I suddenly became so downhearted?” We can give beneficial direction to our thoughts by keeping a particular Bible text in mind. For a few hours, or even a whole day, whenever we come across especially comforting or strengthening words in our study of the Bible, we can fix these in mind. Time after time, when we feel the need, we can repeat these portions of Jehovah’s word, and this way the God of all comfort will aid us, and the peace of God will guard our hearts and our mental powers. Now, our publication, Making Your Family Life Happy, p.34, says, “The thoughts we harbor in our minds affect the way we feel. If you brood on negative things, you will be depressed. By an act of will, you can force the mind to think positive, optimistic thoughts to think on.” Watchtower 1958,p77 says, “By our mind, we set our mental processes in action, along any desired line of thought as a result of our being endowed with the ability to decide for ourselves what we shall think about.” We are not robots. We have free will. What we allow our minds to dwell on makes lasting impressions in our brain, giving it a certain bent or inclination. Finally, Watchtower of August 1, 1969, p.465, says, “God’s word directly counsels us to control our thoughts. Due to inherited weakness and the imperfect and wicked conditions all around us, it is very easy to think wrong thoughts; proud, bitter, resentful, impure and self-pitying thoughts. We are counseled to make our minds over and train them to keep considering things that are true, righteous, chaste, and so forth. The goal we are to strive for in our thinking is to bring every thought into captivity.” Let’s Summarize. What is the direction here? We feel guilty: inappropriately so, or by extension of any other negative emotion: Step one: Identify the thought that produced the feeling. That might be hard to do. These thoughts fly through our minds within fractions of a second, and it may take some thinking just to put the finger on what the thought is. But there is Step One. Identify the thought that produced the feeling. Step Two: If possible, talk back rationally and scripturally to that thought.

In other words, let’s say the thought is, “Well, Jehovah doesn’t forgive me for this mistake that I made.” Well, you talk back to that scripturally by saying, “No, Isaiah1:18 says Jehovah forgives me and makes me white like snow.” Now, that doesn’t mean that you are going to feel better right after you tell yourself that. Don’t’ expect to. And don’t get stuck mentally debating whether it is really true in your case or not. That is not what you do at this point. It is true, but you don’t have to feel convinced just yet. Just say it, and move on to step 3.

Step Three: Short circuit the thought.

Drop it like it was a thought of immorality, or – I like the way one sister put it – “Push it out like it was AIDS.”

Step Four: Consciously replace the thought.

Now Step Four is important. Of the first three steps, number one is the longest, because you have to actually figure out what the thought was. Number tow is you just talk back scripturally. Jehovah forgives you. That’s a fact. You might not feel it, but it is true, just the same. Step Three is you push it out. Now Step Four takes some time. Replacing the thought. That is important. Why is it so important to replace the thought? It makes the whole difference between fighting a hard battle and fighting an impossible one.

It has been said that the mind is like a garden. If you plant flowers in a garden, you get flowers. If you plant weeds, you get weeds. If you plant nothing, you get weeds, because, in the absence of productive gardening, weeds automatically grow. And so it is with our thoughts, then those weed-like negative emotions are going to push themselves right back in, and they are overpowering. They are strong.

Another illustration. I know you have been through this experience. There is a song going through your head, and you don’t like it. I’m not saying it is a bad song, it is just one you don’t like, and it is driving you crazy, and you are saying to yourself, “How can I get this song out of my head? Well, let me think about another song.” And you try to push that undesirable song out and try to think about this other music. It doesn’t work. Later in the day, you are humming this song that you can’t stand, and then, what do you resort to? What always works? What is the one way you can easily push the song out and keep it out for the rest of the day? You put another record on. That’s it. You actually change records. You put this new music on, play it on the record player or the CD or the tape or whatever, and that drives the undesirable music out of your head much more easily than constantly trying to force it out all day and it comes back. That’s the way it is with replacing negative emotions. It makes the fight much easier.

Now, what can you replace it with? What can you fill your mind with? Obviously something positive. Preferably something scriptural. Something upbuilding. But it is going to vary from person to person. We are going to have to say, whatever works for you. I know one person who memorizes Kingdom songs. Another person reads a chapter or two from the Bible. Another one thinks back, “What did we learn at the last meeting?” Personally, I like to fill my mind every day with whatever talks I am working on – whether a part for the service meeting or public talk or whatever – I like to be thinking in terms of “How can I illustrate that?” or “How can I argue this point? How can we introduce this?” Now, I am not saying you do that. I know with some, thinking about talks they are going to give is exactly what they are trying o get their mind off of. If has got to be what you find is so absorbing, so creative, that it actually lessens the fight of the negative emotions.

You might say to yourself, isn’t this very difficult though? Isn’t it just easier to give in and feel guilty and, for that matter, feel worried and depressed, and so forth? Yes, it is easier. Unconditional happiness is difficult to learn. It may at first have to be a very forced thing; a matter of discipline; a mental marathon. Getting our thoughts into captivity – training our minds – for some of us, it can be like training a wild horse. Persons sometimes choose to stay depressed because it is easier to do that; but don’t, because happiness is worth the fight. It is worth the effort. There are a few ways we could illustrate that.

How many of you play a musical instrument? Remember what it was like when you first started? You say to yourself, “I can’t wait to learn this instrument. I’m going to enjoy it. I have always wanted to play it. But once it comes down to actually learning, it is a job, isn’t it? It is just a chore practicing; scales, exercising, finger muscles that you have never used before in this life. Exercising mental muscles. Learning new things. For months, maybe for a year or longer, it is just a job. But what eventually happens? You get to the point where you can just play the instrument without even thinking about it. Yeah, you can play, and talk to someone while you are playing, or you can close your eyes and listen to yourself play and entertain yourself. But it takes time to get there, and, of course, it is forced thing. At first, it is just a job.” And that is the way it is with learning happiness. It can be very forced, mechanical, and it doesn’t feel quite right. Something is wrong – this isn’t me – at first. It can go on for months or a year or more, that one. I am not saying that to discourage you. It is a matter of being determined. Of being prepared. Of sticking with it. Of not giving up.

Another example, Paul and Silas were in the stocks. Remember that scripture? I don’t know. Whenever I read that scripture, I always thought of Paul and Silas in one of those wooden contraptions with a hole. The Insight Book says that Paul and Silas were not in one of those stocks. They were in stocks made for the feet. Very painful. The way they would do it was they would have holes in the floor, and they would take their prisoners – see, the holes would get further and further apart. Now they take their prisoners and stretch their legs out as far as they could so that these men were really in agony, and then they would lock their feet in those holes and keep them in there overnight. Now, the scripture says that Paul and Silas were actually singing songs of praise to Jehovah, rejoicing in the stocks. Did that come natural? Absolutely not. It was their determination to not make the situation any more painful than it already was. And it can take the same kind of determination for you and I to fight the negative feelings and hold on to the positive ones.

Jehovah is an excellent example himself. He has watched his son die. He has seen spirit sons whom he knows personally leave the Truth with no hope of repentance. He knows they are not going to come back. He has seen his earthly family suffer. And, as we mentioned before, he has seen his name reproached, his reputation. Now, these things make Jehovah sad; no doubt about it. Watching his son die – that caused Jehovah great sadness. But again, he did not become depressed or worried or anxious. How did he do it? You know, we say, “He is perfect.” Yes. But HOW did he do it? How does Jehovah remain the happy God and stay mentally healthy under such circumstances? Well, the scriptures say at ISAIAH53:10: “But Jehovah himself took delight in crushing him; [Jesus] he made him sick. If you will set his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong [his] days, and in his hand what is the delight of Jehovah will succeed. Because of the trouble of his soul he will see, he will be satisfied. By means of his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will bring a righteous standing to many people; and their errors he himself will bear. For that reason, I shall deal him a portion among the many, and it will be with the mighty ones that he will apportion the spoil, due to the fact that he poured out his soul to the very death, and it was with the transgressors that he was counted in; and he himself carried the very sin of many people, and for the transgressors he proceeded to interpose.”

“Why does this have to happen? If only Adam hadn’t sinned.” Jehovah did not think unproductively. He chose to focus on, dwell on, fix on the benefits that would come from that sacrifice. That’s the way Jehovah stays happy. His thoughts. And this whole idea of pushing thoughts out and replacing them is not foreign to any of us because, when we first come into the Truth, we are taught how to do that with thoughts of immorality. Push them out, as hard as that may be, replace them, and in time it gets a little easier. It may not be easy, but easier, and this can be done with learning positive thinking.

If you want to read some articles on this subject of controlling our thoughts so as not to feel guilt and otherwise negative: Awake September 1981,p.3 A series of articles here. Awake October 22, 1987 Practically the whole magazine.

Low self esteem

Let’s move on to another source of anxiety; namely, LOW SELF ESTEEM. It is also referred to as SELF-HATE, INFERIORITY, COMPLEX, FEELINGS OF WORTHLESSNESS. And what it means is that we think so little of ourselves that we beat on ourselves for every minor flaw. We second guess our decisions, or we fail to support them. We neglect our physical or emotional needs. We refuse to accept compliments for good things from other people. We think of ourselves as having low value in the congregation. We compare ourselves with others in the congregation who seem to be making a more valid contribution. Don’t confuse low self-esteem with humility. ARE THEY EVER DIFFERENT!!!

Unlike humility, low self-esteem is weakening and discouraging; and actually, a low self-esteem has more in common with pride than it does with humility. Here is a question: Does Jehovah want you to like yourself? I think the Awake has answered that so clearly by now. Let me just quote a couple of them here. Awake, April 22, 1979,p12, says you need to love yourself. And then it asks, “Doesn’t that sound like the ‘Me Generation’ talking?” No, for this is not the self-centered love which rules out the possibility of truly loving others. It is, in fact, necessary to love yourself before you can love others. Moses wrote at LEVITICUS19:18 that you must love your fellow as yourself; to love ourselves in the sense of caring for ourselves; restricting ourselves; having a sense of self-worth. The Awake, August 8, 1978, p.23, says, “A measure of self- respect is necessary. The Bible therefore warns against not only thinking too much, but also think too little of yourself.” And the reasoning here is logical. If Jehovah tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves – not more than ourselves, but as ourselves – if we have difficulty loving ourselves, we are going to love our neighbors just as much. It is obvious what will happen.

How many of you have ever flown on an airplane? You know when the flight attendant comes out and goes through the little spiel about, “Here’s how to handle an emergency,” and they always mention that the oxygen mask drops down and that, if you have a small child with you, they say to first put the mask on yourself and then on the child; for obvious reasons. If we were to pass out in the process of trying to help the child, both would lose. So first, we put ourselves in a position to be strong enough to help the individual, and then we help the child. In the same way, we can’t love others if we don’t respect ourselves. We need to love ourselves.

Now again, what if you know all this? You know it, but you still suffer from low self- esteem perhaps? What if your feelings of low self-esteem are very strong? What does that mean? John used an interesting expression. He said, “God is greater than our hearts.” What he meant is that our feelings can overwhelm us to the point where they seem valid. They seem believable and true. Otherwise, why would we feel so miserable? And yet, those strong feelings are not true. We may chose to give in and believe we are worthless, inferior, beyond hope, because our hearts tell us so, and we feel it from inside so that it is quite overwhelming, but Jehovah from the outside; he doesn’t believe it. He is greater than our hearts.

So, when assaulted with thoughts of feelings of inferiority, do not weakly give in to them. Talk back to those thoughts of self-hate and then push them out like thoughts of immorality, and don’t forget to replace them.

What are you and I worth anyway? We refer to feelings of worthlessness. But if we are worth something, what is it? Jesus said that we are worth more than many sparrows. Sparrows had price tags in Jesus’ day. They were sold two sparrows for one coin, which was similar to our penny; so let’s simplify it and say, “Two sparrows for one cent.” The maximum price fixed by Roman law was 10 sparrows for four cents. Now , what about you and I? If Jehovah had to put a price tag on us, what would it say? What would your price tag say? And how would it compare to, let’s say, your presiding overseer? Or your circuit overseer, or the pioneers in your congregation? Would it be lower? Higher? Here is the question. What price did Jehovah pay to redeem you ? Christ’s Blood. Not that we are worth it in ourselves, we know we are imperfect. It was a gift. But to Jehovah, that is what you are worth. Christ’s blood. That is what he paid for you. Now did Jehovah vary that according to the person’s privileges of service or contribution that he seems to make in the congregation? Did Jehovah redeem congregation elders with more of Christ’s blood than publishers? Or do traveling overseers require more to be redeemed? No. Same price to all. Doesn’t vary from person to person depending on how or what kind of contribution you make to the congregation. All who accept Christ’s ransom are covered by his blood.

I was in a store in New York. Everything there was very high priced. I was just window shopping. Everything was $2,000 or more; a little paperweight that big -$2,000. There was one shaped like a cello - $5,000. The most amazing thing I saw in the store was a woman in the process of buying one of these things, thinking, “Whew! These people exist!” But if you or I were to walk in a store like that and take the paperweight and bring it to the saleslady and say, “Listen, you know, I see the price, $2,000. Frankly, I don’t think this is worth more than 25 cents. I offer her a quarter and nothing more. You are laughing, and so is she. It is absurd. Isn’t it? Now how does Jehovah feel? He has priced everybody the same. You are not worthless – you are priceless. Jehovah has determined that, and he is the one that makes that determination.”

Now, here you or I come along and say, “Oh, no. Not me. I am not worth a dime.” That is absurd to Jehovah’s way of thinking. That’s even a little presumptuous. We are not the ones determining the price. Jehovah has already done that. If you want to read more about low self esteem, here are some references: Awake April 22,1979,pp12&13; January 22, 1986,p40; September 22, 1986, p.6; August 8, 1978,pp.22 & 23; October 22, 1987, pp.12-15. YPA Book: A chapter, “Why do I feel so worthless?”

I’ll be happen when

Let’s move on to another source of anxiety. I call this one, “I’LL BE HAPPY WHEN….” Do you know how that works? I’ll be happy when they make me a ministerial servant in the congregation; or an elder in the congregation. I’ll be happy when I get a part on the circuit assembly. This brother that came into the Truth 12 years after I did is on the assembly every other time. I’ve never been, so I’m going to be absolutely miserable and depressed until I get that privilege. I’ll be happy when I get married, or when I have children. Or I’ll be happy when the children grow up and get out of the house. I’ll be happy when I move out of the neighborhood. I’ll be happy when I move back to the old neighborhood.” You know, it goes on and on, and you know how it goes.

We don’t want to confuse this with goal setting. It is healthy to set theocratic goals to do whatever we can be doing to work toward achieving those goals. That’s good. But to obsess over that goal? To be discontent or miserable until we get it? That’s anxiety. There is a scripture on this too. It is another one of those scriptures that we don’t read often, but the Society has used it and explained it. ECCLESIASTES6:9 : “Better is the seeing by the eyes than the walking about of the soul. This too is vanity and a striving after the wind. ” What does he mean? Seeing by the eyes. That’s reality. And Solomon is saying it is better to accept reality. Walking about of the soul is wishful thinking. That’s what we want real bad, but it is not accessible right now. And it is not facing reality to keep wishing we had something that, for now, we just can’t plain have.

Now, one way this can be applied is relative to unfairness and injustice. Turn on the news or read a newspaper. In justice all over. Now, if we get disturbed, that’s normal. If we get overly disturbed and we just live a life of frustration, “How can these things be? How can people do things like that? How can people and authority permit it?” We are not facing reality. Until Jehovah’s Kingdom does away with wickedness, this world is going to be one of injustice.

Sometimes the unfairness happens inside Jehovah’s organization. Sometimes it is within the congregation. Jehovah’s people are imperfect. That is a reality. And I think if any of us have to answer the question, “Are Jehovah’s people imperfect?” Yes. “All of them?” Yes. “Does that include pioneers and circuit overseers and congregation elders?” Obviously. “And are pioneers and elders less imperfect than anyone else?” No. They are the same. But as soon as they show it in some tangible way; boy, do we get upset. “He should know better. He is a circuit overseer. She should know better. She is a pioneer.” But they are imperfect. Jehovah’s organization on earth is imperfection in some tangible way. We don’t want to use that information to condone or perpetuate wrong conduct on our own part. But, when we see the imperfection in others, regardless of who they are, it is just plain not facing reality to get overly upset about it. If there is something we can do about the matter, report it to the right authority. Fine. But to get overly upset about it is not facing reality. It is walking about of the soul, and Solomon said it is vanity and chasing the wind. We are wishing that things were just perfect right now, and Jehovah is not going to change the day and the hour to fit our preference in that direction.

But, getting back to our main context here, another way that Awake magazine used this ECCLESIASTES6:9 principle is relative to this “I’ll be happy when…” way of thinking. When we say, “I won’t be happy until I achieve [a certain goal]”; then we are walking about of the soul. We are not facing reality. Reality is what we have. Whatever we can see with our eyes is what we have. Are you an elder in the congregation? A ministerial servant? What particular privileges of service do you have? What is your lot in life? Where do you live? Are you rich? Are you poor? And so forth. That is what we can see with our eyes – what we actually have. Walking about of the soul – that is what we want badly, but it is not accessible right now. Maybe it is a good goal. If it is reasonable, then we can be working toward it, but it is not accessible right now – so to become frustrated and to say, “I ‘ll be miserable until I get it”; Solomon said it is chasing the wind. Why? Here’s why. Because even after we get it, we are only going to find something else to want so bad, and then we are going to be obsessed with reaching that goal.

Now, if you are young or if you just plain haven’t wanted very many things in life bad enough yet, then right now you are saying to yourself, “Oh, no, not me. Just give me this one thing. I promise, I’ll be happy for the rest of my life. I’ll never want anything else again.” Can’t happen. Impossible. Because Jehovah made us as goal-setting creatures. There is always going to be something out there to go for next. That is proper. That is right. And it is going to keep happening. But this “I’ll be happy when…” way of thinking is exactly that. A way of thinking. And the cure lies not in getting what we want – that will happen – but in learning to savor what Jehovah is presently providing. It all comes right back to what Proverbs15:15 tells us – happiness is an inside job. We make ourselves good at heart by our thinking.

If you still think that our contentment has a whole lot to do with all those external things happening out there, think about Eve. What does it take to make a person happy? Eve had everything. She had a perfect home, perfect husband, perfect food, perfect health. She had perfect hair. EVE HAD IT ALL. Was she content? No. She was one of the originals. “I won’t be happy until I get my independence. Then I don’t have to listen to Adam. I don’t have to listen to Jehovah. I can do everything I want to do.” And of course, we know from our study of the Bible that even then Eve was not content. But the point is, a person can have everything, the ideal circumstance, and still be thinking, “I’ll be happy when…”, because it is an inside job. Think of the apostle Paul. He had this thorn in the flesh. What was it? His bad eyesight? Whatever. He asked Jehovah to please remove it. Jehovah would not remove it, but he gave Paul a viewpoint, a way of looking at the problem so that Paul could continue to be happy and content. You remember how the reasoning went, something along the lines of, “Well, I’m better off with this problem. I am more powerful when I have this weakness because now, when people see all I am doing in Jehovah’s service, they know it is not on my own strength. Look at my bad health. So they will give credit to Jehovah. Therefore, I am better off with this weakness.” See, Jehovah gave Paul a scriptural way of viewing the problem so that he could keep the problem and stay content at the same time. Happiness is an inside job. Some references relative to “I’ll be happy when…” Awake: August 22, 1979,pp9-11, Watchtower:1977, p.330 and ECCLESIASTES6:9

Peace of the God

A talk on anxiety would not be complete without discussing one more remedy, and that is discussed at PHILIPPIANS4:9. Let’s read this as our final scripture tonight. “The things that you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me, practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.” Here, Paul directs us toward wholesome activity. Practice what we are taught, and we will have Jehovah’s peace. Spiritual activity, especially relative to the field ministry, can be a great protection to keep us happy.

Now, sometimes we think, “Well, some depression is so severe, it can require medical treatment, and some depression can be so severe that filed service and meeting attendance doesn’t help. Right?” Correct. And the Society acknowledges that. Most of us, though, do not fall into that category. Some do, and that can be treated too. But most of us fall into a category where spiritual activity does help. While full-time servants and pioneers are not immune from depression by any means, as a whole, those in full-time service are the happiest people on earth for the most part. And they are making other people happy. And they are making Jehovah happy. So, are you in a position to enlarge your service to Jehovah? Getting absorbed in serving Jehovah has a way of shrinking our troubles to a size small enough that we can either live happily with or eliminate them entirely. Either way, there is relief.

Anxiety and depression, when severe, is not easy to fight. I hope I have not said anything tonight that gives the impression that it should be very easy, that there is something wrong with us if we have to fight very hard to rid ourselves of negative thoughts and feelings. That is not true. It is not easy. It is difficult. Some doctors say it is an addiction! That would explain why. Whenever we indulge in negative thinking and depression, certain chemicals are poured through our body, naturally produced drugs that prepare our body to fight a problem, real or imagined. Now , if we do this habitually – indulge in negative thinking, our body actually becomes addicted to those chemicals, they say. And therefore, you hear a talk, you read an article, and you say, “Well, that’s it: From now on, I am going to be good at heart. From now on, I am going to be happy.” It works for about two or three days. And then, it is hard. “This is impossible. This is like fighting a bad habit.” IT IS FIGHTING A BAD HABIT. And it is every bit as difficult.

I don’t say it to discourage. I say it so that you are prepared. You have to tackle it just as you would if you were practicing for a special athletic contest and you have a year to get yourself ready to go out there and win. You have to tackle it with the same determination as quitting smoking or something like that. And sometimes medical or dietary treatments are needed. That’s beyond the scope of this talk, but your Watchtower index will take you to articles that discuss it. If you remembered nothing else from this talk tonight, remember Proverbs 15:15: “All the days of the afflicted one are bad; but the one that is good of heart [has] a feast constantly.”

And when faced with anxiety, let’s ask ourselves, “If I cannot change or improve my situation, what mental viewpoint should I adopt so as to be as reasonably happy as possible under the circumstance. And then, as the Proverb says, we will have a feast constantly, even when things go wrong, because we will have made our happiness dependent not on external circumstances, but on scriptural thinking, and that is what makes us happy. And remember that, in Jehovah’s new order, we will soon be perfectly happy. You can’t expect perfect happiness now. That will just make us more miserable if we expect it. But in God’s new order – which will soon be a reality – as we grow to perfection all anxiety will be eliminated. It will no longer be a fight to ward off feelings of worthlessness and guilt and obsession and worry, and yet sometimes the new order becomes for some of us an object of anxiety. We worry that we might not make it. And sometimes, we are faced with trouble and sickness and imperfection and opposition; all the problems common to imperfect men and women. Sometimes all of these anxieties cross our path all at once. We have doubts that we are going to make it into the new order. We may even start to want to savor the pleasures of this world because we don’t want to miss out together.

From a human standpoint, we are right. We can’t make it. This time, the inside feeling is true. We are feeling something factual. But when Jesus’ disciples expressed that concern to him, he said, “With man it is impossible, but all things are possible with God.” We often use that expression, “With Jehovah all things are possible.” Did you know that when Jesus said that, he was talking in context of your ability to qualify for eternal life? With Jehovah’s help, you can do it. That means that none of us are so spiritually handicapped or spiritually weak or spiritually disadvantaged in some way that we cannot gain spiritual strength and qualify for life eternal. We can make it. We will make it with Jehovah’s help – so have no anxiety. With prayer and supplication, make your petitions known to God. Keep your mind fixed on the things that are healthy and upbuilding. Practice what is good to the best of your ability.