Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
In one locality I was in, I attended a certain prophesying meeting in a district for a while (a couple years). People were happy enough to see me. There were a handful of elders in that particular meeting. After a while I couldn't stand what I was hearing any more (HWMR, only HWMR, and more HWMR) and the rote "amens" that were repeated without any thought to what they were actually "amen-ing", so I dropped out and didn't go anymore. Due to various circumstances I continued to see those elders in other areas of my life over the next few years, but not one of them ever asked me how I was doing, mentioned that they noticed I was gone, asked why I'd left, or showed any concern towards me at all, even though I was actually continuing to help them out in other ways. At the time I was truly blown away. As a matter of fact, no other saint in that meeting came after me to see what happened either. It has been kind of a punch to the gut to see how little I mattered.
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In fact! Several years after that one of those elders I was still in regular contact with knew personally that I was going through a very difficult time (unrelated to my reasons for no longer attending the prophesying meeting). Not once over the 6-month period while I was struggling did he ask how I was doing. Eventually it bothered me so much that for my own mental health I pointed it out to him and asked why he never even asked how I was doing when he was one of the few people that knew what I hard time I was having. His response was, "Well I knew you were having a hard time and that your response would be negative, so I didn't want to ask." ("negative" not in the sense of against the church, just negative as in not happy and bubbly and positive). I still cannot wrap my head around the answer of "I knew you were struggling so I didn't care to ask" from someone who has been appointed to reach out to, provide an ear to, and shepherd struggling ones!