Appreciating Jehovah’s Mercy and Loving-Kindness
As told by KLAUS JENSEN
HAS it ever occurred to you how patient and merciful the great God Jehovah has been with sinful humankind? how he has tolerated their ignoring of him and his will, while going their own selfish way? how even with individuals he offers opportunity after opportunity to come into peaceful relations with him, though they may treat it all quite lightly?—Ps. 145:8.
Looking back on my own experience, I recall returning to the city from my usual weekend trip to a small cottage in the woods north of Kristiania, Norway, my mind made up. Yes, I had decided to break from the whole pattern of life I was then living. It was the kind of life being led by most people with a fair income. Getting away from the scene of daily toil every weekend always seemed such a good idea—skiing and hiking in the wonderful woodlands of Nordmarken.
Some people make Nature their god, but I had always believed in a mighty, intelligent Creator of all. Being in the wild solitude could sometimes be truly awe-inspiring. Yet there was something empty about my life, perhaps the selfishness of it all, just looking after myself. Exactly what was missing, I did not know.
THE EARLY YEARS
That particular weekend I had been on my own. Perhaps I got to thinking of my boyhood spent in the old town of Tönsberg, on the west side of Kristianiafjord. To there we had moved from a small place called Saltnes Raade a few years after I was born in 1896, and there I got my schooling, both public and commercial. And, of course, I enjoyed gymnastics and sports when it was time for them.
Perhaps, too, I got to thinking about my God-fearing parents—folk who had always reverenced God’s Word, the Bible. We were a happy family, ten of us children, of whom I was number five. My father was engaged in the fishing business, and with such a family he always had to work hard to make ends meet. In summertime we children enjoyed vacationing with father aboard his fishing vessel, and he enjoyed having us along. Often he would kneel down and thank God for his blessings.
Looking back now, I can see that father wanted me to look forward to making my livelihood in some different line of work. The fishing business was too strenuous. So eventually I got into high school without paying any tuition, and at graduation started out in office work, particularly in the marine insurance business. For a short time, too, I gained experience in a shipowner’s office.
Sometime about 1908 my parents began to think even more seriously about the Bible’s message. In those days children might go with their parents to meetings, but it was not emphasized for young ones so much. Thus when my parents started attending the meetings of the Bible Students, as Jehovah’s witnesses were then known, we tagged along. As far as I can recall, the main topic of discussion was the “High Calling,” of those who hoped one day to reign with Christ in heaven. Yet we children passed up many opportunities really to consider God’s will for us. “Pilgrims” or traveling representatives of the Watch Tower Society used to come to our home often. In fact, just lately I received greetings from an eighty-two-year-old who lived at our place while witnessing in our town as a full-time, house-to-house minister. Such visits were always enjoyable, and one in particular I shall never forget, for one of those visitors made this remark relative to the interest in sports shared by my brother and myself: “I wish they were running for another prize.”—Phil. 3:13, 14.
During the latter part of 1917 I was called up for military service, something I considered it my duty to perform. Evidently my employer thought the same, for he paid me full wages during the nine months I served with the Coastal Defense. Three of us were assigned to night watch, living in a small hut on an island in Kristianiafjord.
On one occasion we had a narrow escape when a mine was washed up on the stony beach. Trying to steady it, I pulled out of position a certain cylinderlike part. One of my companions, an engineer, slapped it down again immediately. Later on, when the mine was dismantled, we learned that another slight movement could have detonated it and killed us all.
Back in those days we did not have a clear-cut understanding of the Bible’s teaching on neutrality. Once when mother asked me what I would do if the League of Nations asked me to go fight in some other part of the world, I told her that I would have to go. Not till later did I learn the significance of the Bible’s words: “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces . . . Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand.” (Isa. 8:9, 10, AV) Yet there were those at that time who were refusing to render God’s things to Caesar, and suffering for it.
A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Later on, having now moved in to Kristiania, I subscribed for The Golden Age, now known as Awake! That resulted in a visit of the Watch Tower Society’s representative, who already knew me from former visits to my parents’ home. Strange though, I still made no real forward move in response to Jehovah’s kindly beckoning. In fact, when special lecturer A. H. Macmillan was advertised to give the talk “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” I persuaded a good friend of mine to go and hear it while I took off for the country.
That friend gave such an interesting report about the lecture that I made sure I got to the next special lecture that was advertised. This did impress me very much, but apart from wishing I could tell others about God’s mercy and kindness, and speaking casually to a few others in my circle of acquaintances about what I had learned, I did nothing. Would Jehovah continue to extend mercy?
Then came that weekend at Nordmarken. I decided to make some drastic changes in my life, still somewhat unclear as to what I must do in order to gain more satisfaction out of life.
THE BIG CHANGE
In 1923 I quit my job and laid my plans to sail for America. California was really my goal, but I learned that New York had more to offer in my line of business. My friends and even my parents thought it was all a joke. Others were sure I would be right back, claiming I could not stay away from Nordmarken and its wild woodlands. Finally the parting time arrived. Mother said, “Maybe you will get to Bethel,” meaning, of course, the Watch Tower Society’s Brooklyn headquarters. It was quite a trip: a week looking around London, and then across the Atlantic in the then fastest passenger ship, the Mauretania.
That was a big change. But a more important change came when I started to attend the meetings of Jehovah’s people regularly in Bloomfield, New Jersey. With knowledge came a deeper sense of responsibility. Then, in the early part of 1924 my Christian brothers in Bloomfield took me along on a trip to the Brooklyn Bethel home, on which occasion I was baptized. What an impression that visit made on me! So much so that, soon after, when I read in the Watch Tower magazine that there were work opportunities for single, unencumbered men dedicated to God, I was interested enough to inquire and eventually fill out an application. “How long are you willing to stay?” the form inquired. “As long as it is the Lord’s will,” was my reply. Surely Jehovah had been undeservedly kind to me in opening up this privilege!
A NEW LIFE
So, on May 12, 1924, I reported for work and have ever since lived at 124 Columbia Heights, with never a desire to move away. My first job was in the Circulation Department at 18 Concord Street, cutting address stencils, some of them for a four-page, second-class publication, The Broadcaster, that it was hoped would reach hundreds of thousands of persons through the mails. Later, this publication was discontinued, because so many failed to reach their destination. Witnesses everywhere were then called upon to put their efforts into distribution of The Golden Age, a magazine the circulation of which today is not merely in the hundreds of thousands, but in the millions. It is now known as Awake!
For one so used to sports and movement, it was difficult at first to adjust to this new occupation. However, a change came when I was asked to choose between the Platemaking Department and the Shipping Department. Since I knew a bit more about ships and cargoes, to the Shipping Department I went. Later on, when a Northern European Office of the Society was established in Copenhagen and the opportunity of a transfer was thereby indicated, it was decided that I stay on at Brooklyn.
In the Shipping Department, which embraces Receiving, Shipping, Import and Export activities, I have had the privilege of noting the expansion of the organization during more than forty-five years; from leased factory buildings in 1924 to Society-owned modern factory buildings on four city blocks in 1969; from a 19th-century residence building in 1924 to tall modern residential buildings on both sides of Columbia Heights today. Now in some 200 lands over 25,400 congregations are supplied Bibles and Bible-study aids. What a tremendous flow of Bible knowledge goes out from here!
Where once the major part of our shipments were in small mail packages, today large freight shipments go out to destinations around the whole earth. The Post Office even finds it advantageous to make daily pickups from our premises with huge trailers, instead of our delivering with our own trucks.
And think of the enormous quantities of literature that are distributed within a day or two at our large conventions! This has always fascinated me. At St. Louis in 1941, for example, more than 125,000 copies of the book Children were distributed along with almost half a million of the booklet “Comfort All That Mourn.” At the 1958 New York assembly there was a record distribution of new clothbound publications amounting to 670,000, besides hundreds of thousands of the booklet God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?
One of the enjoyable privileges I had during the past years had to do with the Scandinavian Hour, a weekly program sponsored by a small group of Scandinavian publishers of the Kingdom. Lectures were given in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, with interludes of fine music over the facilities of WBBR, the Society-owned radio station.
LIFE IN BETHEL
I have so far lived a single life, in harmony with the apostle Paul’s advice: “He also that gives his virginity in marriage does well, but he that does not give it in marriage will do better.” (1 Cor. 7:38) This has not been just so easy, but as Jesus himself advised when asked about the advisability of remaining single: “Let him that can make room for it make room for it.”—Matt. 19:12.
On the other hand, in Bethel I have been blessed by fine association of brothers and sisters, and among fellow Witnesses outside of Bethel I can count many other spiritual fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, even as Jesus promised. (Luke 18:29, 30) In fact, in some homes I have been privileged to come and go just like a member of the family. May Jehovah reward them all for their love and kindness to me down through the years.
During the past forty-five years and more I have seen many new ones come to join the Bethel family, and others move out for one reason or another. I was always saddened to see those with whom I had worked closely go from here, for I could recall pleasant memories of hard, long hours of work together in meeting some emergency situation. With many I have lost contact, but I do hope that, wherever they are, they are continuing in happy association with the publishers of the Kingdom.
Though I realize that “godly devotion” is far more beneficial than “bodily training,” I could still enjoy a few days of skiing when the temperature drops to 20° F. (1 Tim. 4:8) Though always keenly interested in sports, I never did excel in any of the competitive fields. I do recall, though, that shortly after I came to Bethel I found that another member of the Bethel family had been in the games with me in Kristiania in 1920. He had been a member of the American Olympic (Antwerp) track team, then visiting in Norway. And I recall that he won his race in Norway. In Bethel I gained much from his association on account of his manly, Christian qualities.
I have every reason to express grateful thanks to Jehovah for his patient forbearance, as he gently drew me by his Kingdom message; for his loving-kindness in overlooking the measure of indifference that must have been there; for his goodness in supplying all my needs whenever I did determine to cast all my burdens on him. In the early years of Bethel life it is true that there were not the variety and abundance of material things we have today, but we never went hungry. Still more important, we have never been without the rich spiritual food for the mind. And for the future—Jehovah’s rich rewards await us at the end of a faithful course. May we never fail to praise and thank him!