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A Worthy Goal In Life​—How I Found It

I WOULD have pursued an academic life had it not been for my being introduced to surfboard riding at the age of fourteen. Interest in all other activities took second place for several years. Along with my newfound friends, I traveled up and down Australia’s east coast looking for good waves.

My lure was Queensland’s Gold Coast, a strip of at least a dozen golden-sand beaches that have been commercialized to become the largest and most popular tourist resort area in Australia.

But enthusiasm for the surf eventually cooled. Then another interest began consuming my time​—gambling on horses. The first time that I placed a bet, the horse won. I was soon to wish that it had lost! During my weekly trips to the races I had such consistent losses that some of my friends nicknamed me ‘the bookies’ buddy.’ Constantly without funds, I depended on my flat-mate to advance me some money.

At the age of twenty-one I seriously began to look for a secure job in order to make a success of myself. I worked part time as a barman in a Returned Serviceman’s Club. The actions of well-respected men during their recreation hours made me wonder whether I was striving after yet another fruitless goal in pursuing a career.

Soon I moved on again and took a job as a waiter in a hotel at one of Australia’s snow resorts. One could view firsthand the inequalities of the world. While thousands were starving in one part of the world, I would be tipped up to $60 for work I was being paid to do anyway.

Later, the value of some land that I owned had become so “inflated” that it gave a good profit. In partnership with a friend, we bought a 200-acre (80-hectare) farm. My girl friend and I lived in a ‘home of our own’ on a hundred acres (40 hectares) in a picturesque valley near the Gold Coast beaches. We had no intention of getting married; we had seen too many friends end up with the heartache of a broken marriage and we viewed the ‘exchanging of vows’ as an unnecessary social evil.

Then, one morning when I was sitting down at the farm smoking marijuana and having a couple of beers with two friends, a young man came to the door saying something about the Bible. “Not interested; got my own ideas on the Bible,” I said. But he left a couple of magazines. I looked through them briefly. But then . . . what sort of God would allow so much suffering and injustice in the world?

Another Look at the Bible

About this time my old flat-mate arrived back from his holiday around the world. While on the island of Maui in Hawaii, he had come to believe that God was the Maker of the beautiful planet that we live on, and that the Bible was God’s Word to mankind. As he had previously been an atheist, I could hardly believe my ears. Being brought up in the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, we disputed over whether religion had anything sensible and substantial to offer. Nevertheless, he felt that the Bible was from God and that it was well worth our close examination.

The few things that he showed me about the Bible caused me to think. We closely examined Matthew chapter 24. Regardless of what the Bible said, I had long felt that mankind was indeed in the last days. Yet here it was, in that chapter. It showed that the events that marked life in this twentieth century actually were foretold to mark the end of this system of things in our time. Soon we realized the advantages of seeking contact with others who were interested in molding their lives according to the Bible.

A Search for True Religion

First, I contacted an old Baptist friend and we listened to a sermon in a private home. Later, I wondered how people who really claimed to be Christians could go to war and kill professing Christians on the opposite side. This was not the type of religion that I felt God would approve. The next Sunday we set off for the Methodist church. On the way, we stopped at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I asked the man who met us if Jehovah’s Witnesses believed in Jesus as the Son of God who died for man’s sin. “Yes,” he replied.

“Do you believe that we are in the period of time that the Bible speaks of as the last days?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“And do you believe that shortly all of us Christians will be bodily taken up to meet our Lord in the air?”

“Not exactly,” he replied. “The Scriptures show that God’s purpose is for man to enjoy everlasting life right here on earth, and that only a comparatively small number will be needed in heaven to make up the Kingdom, which will rule over the earth.”

He showed me Revelation 7:4. We then were invited to enter the hall and listen to the public talk being delivered that morning.

The talk was entitled “How the Resurrection Benefits All the Dead in Hell.” The speaker was pointing out from the Scriptures the condition of the human dead and how God will resurrect the masses in the graves, thereby giving them the opportunity to live forever on a cleansed earth. How different the understanding these people have on hell, I thought. The speaker explained that hell is merely the common grave of all mankind. For our consultation later, the man who invited us inside took notes of the Scriptural references made.

Bible Answers to My Questions

After the meeting I had many questions. Why was the speaker constantly referring to God as Jehovah? Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses take blood transfusions? How is it that the Witnesses can publish Bible literature at a fraction of the cost that I had been paying for other publications at religious bookshops?

I was shown Bible answers to all my questions, and my curiosity about the “cheap” Bible literature was satisfied by my visiting the Australia branch of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society three days later. There I saw young men and women busy operating printing machines, packing Bible literature and dispatching it to all parts of the South Pacific​—all these persons working on a voluntary basis. I wanted to purchase some books for my friends. So, I approached the “brother” at the magazine dispatch counter who was happy to give me forty of the hardbound books Is the Bible Really the Word of God? and The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, each for just 25 cents.

I must say I was impressed to see how thoroughly the Witnesses understood and used the Bible at that first meeting that we attended. My previous flat-mate wanted to attend services of a more “conventional” religion. So we decided to go along to the Methodist church that night. When we were walking into the church, one of the young men who was handing out hymn books saw the Bibles we brought along with us and said: “You won’t need those here.” He was right.

From that day on my girl friend and I never stopped going to the local Kingdom Hall to learn about the Bible. How quickly this helped us to progress in our understanding of the Bible and God’s purpose for the earth! We had no intention of keeping the fine things we were learning to ourselves. Soon twelve others joined us in our weekly study of God’s Word.

Within eighteen months, eight of us were able to clean out of our lives things that God will not allow under the heavenly rulership of his Son Jesus Christ. Thereafter, we presented ourselves for baptism. My wife and I are now working as full-time servants of Jehovah God. We have indeed found a worthy goal in life.​—Contributed.