Is The Grass Greener?

Is the grass really greener on the other side?

Depends where your standing.

If your anything like me, there has been, on more than one occasion, that you looked to the other side, and asked is the grass really greener over there?
On the other side?

The greener grass...

You wanted to see it up close. You wanted to touch it.

You wanted it, wanted it for your own.

I don't know what your greener was or is.  Maybe it's to celebrate holidays and birthdays. Maybe it was to have a social life out side of the organization, maybe it was to get a job and work.

For me the greener has always been the desire to get an education.
For me it was to be able to think for myself. To have some dignity. For me it was to see if I had any value or purpose outside of the organization.
For me most of all I wanted answers.
Answers to "The Truth".

Contemplating the greener side, the other side
I decided to jump...

All to many times I only got so far, that picket fence snagged me a time or two and I never made it over.

It was easier in some sense, and in some ways just to stay where I was at. I knew the consequences if I did jump and made it to the other side, and stayed.
  The loss of my family, my friends, the loss of my life all together.
The shunning, the rejection, being ostracized, the looks.
Then would come the wonder- who am I?
 The price is high. I know.

I was told and quite honestly I thought I was on the real thing, in the real thing, in "The Truth".

Fake-No Way!

According to Wikipedia...

Artificial turf 

is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

-Synthetic 4b

-devised, arranged, or fabricated for special situations to imitate or replace usual realities

I discovered I was on Artificial Turf!

The main reason artificial turf is used is because of  maintenance—artificial turf resists heavy use... and requires no irrigation or trimming. Domed, covered, and partially covered stadiums may require artificial turf because of the difficulty of getting grass enough sunlight to stay healthy.

But artificial turf does have its downside: limited life... ... toxic chemicals from infill and some heightened health and safety concerns.

Artificial turf resists heavy use-

Resisted at every turn.  Every question I asked. Every answer I questioned. Resisted. 
I felt heavily used.
All I did-was never enough.  I couldn't study enough, witness enough, be good enough.  It never seemed I could knock on enough doors.

The Greener Side:

It is by grace I have been saved through faith and not the result of my works.  Ephesian 2:8-9 ISV

Artificial turf requires no irrigation or trimming-

No water, No lifelines, No growth, No life outside the organization.  I felt manufactured.

The Greener Side:

Jesus takes care of me if I remain in Him and Him in me I will produce fruit and every branch that doesn't he prunes me so that I will produce even more with his help. John 15 NLT

Places domed and covered, may require artificial turf because of the difficulty of getting grass enough sunlight to stay healthy-

Covered and secluded, cut-off from the outside world. I had great difficulty getting enough sunlight to stay healthy.  The light of the world- As a Jehovah's Witness, Christ was denied and stripped of His deity.  Little did I  know I needed the sun (Son) to stay healthy.

The Greener Side:

I didn't need to fear the Son of God, I could believe in Him fully.
I could believe in who He says He is.  He wouldn't judge me because of my frailties.
He came to save me.  If I chose to not believe in Him I already stood judged for not believing in

 God's one and only Son. John 3:17-18 NLT
Judged by God NOT man.

But artificial turf does have its downside: limited life.

My life was limited on that turf.  I didn't know "The Truth" the plan God had for me.

The Greener Side:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Artificial turf does have toxic chemicals from infill-

The toxic chemicals-A daily life in lies, manipulation, and judgment. False Prophets and Teachers an over abundance in my everyday life.

The Greener Side:

"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.

You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Matthew 7:15, 16a NLT

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Peter 2:1 NIV

So my life on the turf was devised, arranged and fabricated for special situation to imitate truth and replace all the usual realities of life and truth.

There was a day I was determined more so than all the others. I jumped that fence, sure I got snagged, oh sure I fell again. The tears. The scratches. The scars to show it.

But I made it to the other side. I found out the grass is greener on the other side.  And I love it here!

There it is the real thing created by God.

We have roots, we belong, we were created for a purpose, created to grow, created to flourish, created to thrive, to live, to love and be loved.

Would you be able to tell the difference?

but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 NLT

JUMP!