The Owner’s Manual

This thought I liked from yesterday’s Watchtower Study and compared it to an ad for online therapy now making the rounds in my neck of the woods:

“After they rebelled, Adam and Eve immediately experienced the consequences of their violating God’s law​—a law that was “written in their hearts.” (Rom. 2:15) They could sense a change in themselves​—and not for the better. They felt compelled to cover portions of their body and hide like criminals from their Creator. (Gen. 3:7, 8) For the first time, Adam and Eve were subject to feelings of guilt, anxiety, insecurity, pain, and shame. To one degree or another, those feelings would plague them until their death.​—Gen. 3:16-19” (para 10)

The ad for therapy asserts that it can help since “we’re all figuring it out.” Not to diss therapy; it probably can help—if not always, at least sometimes. But it seems like it can help a whole lot more if you if you augment  counselors yet “figuring it out” with sources that have figured it out, sources that tell us where “feelings of guilt, anxiety, insecurity, pain, and shame” (para 10) come from in the first place. Those emotions bubble up and reappear in settings far removed from their origin, but it is still good to know what their origin is. 

The illustration that resonates with Witnesses is that of an owner’s manual for a product. You’d be crazy not to heed its directions. Witnesses figure the Bible is the owner’s manual for the product that is us. They draw that thought from scriptures such as 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness,  so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”

Since God made us, it’s only going to create internal discord to go against what is “written in our hearts,” from Romans 2:15 again in that paragraph. You really do have to cooperate with the owner’s manual. The point of this post is not to devalue therapy. It is to elevate instruction from our Maker.

******  The bookstore