As I was growing up as a JW, I often saw WTS literature which would ask this question: "How can we be pleasing to God?"  Of course, in that religion nothing we could ever do would totally please God, so the question begged an impossible standard. That being so, we were stuck  upon a lifelong treadmill and no matter how fast we ran, it was never fast enough.

But was "how can we please God" the right question to ask?  For it to be the right question, it would have to presuppose that not only is it our obligation to try to please God, but also it is very important to God that we please God, so much so that our eternal salvation depends upon it.  If there is no obligation to please God and if it isn't very important to God that we please him or not, then it is definitely not the right question.  If God has no NEED to be pleased, then the question is irrelevant.

Here is a much different question: "What must God do to please US, to make us have a better life?" As JWs, our religious leaders not only never let us ask this question, they considered it blasphemy to do so.

As a father of four children, I often asked myself the question, "What must I do to help my children be happy and have a better life?"  Most human parents love their children enough to do the same.  If that were not so, the world would be in chaos. Those human parents who operate out of the selfish principal of demanding that their children devote their lives to making the parents happy, end up with children who are dysfunctional, miserable, without fulfillment and without identities of their own.

Even as frail and imperfect humans, most of us recognize the simple fact that as parents we have an obligation to help our children be happy.  Why then, does the "God" of the WTS (and many other religions) demand something that even humans find selfish beyond belief?  Why does that God demand that our lives should be about pleasing Him and other than that, we are on our own?

After reading hundreds and hundreds of life stories of former JWs as I've done, there is a common thread in all of them:  we could never fully measure up to pleasing God, and no matter what we did, it was never good enough.  We were told that it was "God" who had decided we never measured up, but in fact, it was not "God" at all, but "God's" self-appointed surrogate who had decided we could never measure up.  That surrogate was the WT Printing Corporation.

I had an ex-JW friend who was a former Circuit and District Overseer for the WTS who had a lot of authority beyond the average District Overseer.  He was dearly loved by most rank and file JWs in the areas he served.  I once asked him if the WTS ever sincerely thanked him for the kindness and compassion he showed to JWs he was in charge of serving.  He told me that one time a superior of his wrote a highly positive evaluation of his performance and profusely praised his service to the brothers he served.  Another superior was given a copy of the letter and sat down to discuss it with him.  The second superior said, "we cannot have a review such as this, and we are going to have to tone it down quite a bit."  My friend told me that throughout his over 40 years of service in and out of Bethel, he never ONCE received a pat on the back or a "job well done" from his superiors.

Therefore, it makes sense to me that if the "God" of  WT Corporation can never be fully pleased with one's efforts, why should the WT Corporation ever be fully pleased with one's efforts?

I'm sure if a hundred people were asked the second question, "what must God do to please us", one would get a hundred different answers.

Perhaps the right question might be a combination of the two questions: "what must God do to please us, so that we could do what pleases God?"  I consider that a fair question.  That is also a fair question for parents to ask, "what must we do to please our children, so that they can do what pleases us?"  Healthy answers to parental obligations would be "nurture them, cherish them, protect them, provide for them, teach them good values and morals and love them unconditionally, even though we may not always love what they do."

If these obligations human parents have to children are healthy and beneficial, why should these things not also be expected of a being infinitely greater than mere frail human beings?

God created humans.  Humans create other humans through reproduction.  In that regard then, there is not such a big difference between God and humans. So why should there be such a big difference between what is required from God as a parent and what is required from humans as parents?

Maybe it is time to dump all the guilt others have made us carry around about "pleasing God" and take a new look at our spiritual obligations, IF we HAVE any spiritual obligations in the first place.

Maybe it is time to also dump those who take it upon themselves to dump guilt upon us.  Maybe we've been trying too hard to figure out something that just might be very simple.  Maybe life is less about DOING and more about BEING.

Maybe it is all as simple as this:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." -Matthew 22:36-40 (New International Version)

That doesn't sound too difficult!  Living like that requires less effort and is more rewarding than selling books for a Corporation which offers everything, and gives nothing except unfulfilled promises, guilt, emptiness and misery.  And even if you are inclined to remove the "loving God" part from your life, your life will still be rich, and I'm sure a decent Creator wouldn't be all that bothered about it, either.  Decent Creators of entire Universes probably don't sweat the small stuff, you know.

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