the cost, just as Jesus stated: “For example, who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and figure out the expense, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not have the funds to finish it, and all the onlookers might start to ridicule him, saying: ‘This man started to build but had not the funds to finish.’” In making a dedication it means that the individual should count the cost of taking such a course and holding to it to the finish, and do so soberly and diligently.—Luke 14:28-30.

DEDICATION BRINGS HAPPINESS

20. What are some of Jehovah’s blessings for dedicated servants? And what brings joy?

²⁰ Then why not measure what you forsake alongside what you are promised by Jehovah? (Matt. 19:27-29) Stop and think about it! What good things do you have that you did not receive from Jehovah in the first place, including the power of rendering devotion, praise and willing service? These are the things that you will happily dedicate to Jehovah, even your whole self, to serve him. These are willingly given to Jehovah through the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, for the unspeakable privileges and blessings that are continually bestowed upon God’s dedicated servants. However, bear in mind that this gives the individual the authority to be called by and to speak in Jehovah’s name as one of His witnesses. In this doomed and dying old world, these dedicated servants of God are the happiest people living. In fact, such people expect to survive God’s universal war at Armageddon and confidently expect to live forever in an earthwide paradise of perfection. Much, then, depends upon one’s making a dedication, and then everything depends upon one’s faithfulness to that dedication. Maintaining integrity and faithfully living up to one’s dedication vows brings supreme happiness. Failure to do so brings despair.

21. How extensive must dedication be?

²¹ The full impact and importance of dedication can seemingly be summed up in Jesus’ words: “Thus, you may be sure, none of you that does not say good-bye to all his belongings can be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33) Nothing may be permitted to interfere with dedication. This can include the wife of a man, or the husband of a woman, or a family or anything else of this world that might be held dear. Dedication of oneself to Jehovah must be unequivocal in its scope. The individual is duty-bound to render exclusive devotion to Jehovah.

“Under the Thumb of the Mass”

“The modern man,” says Dr. Albert Schweitzer, “is lost in the mass in a way which is without precedent in history. . . . His diminished concern about his own nature makes him as it were susceptible, to an extent that is almost pathological, to the views which society and its organs of expression have put, ready-made, into circulation. Since, over and above this, society, with its well-constructed organization, has become a power of as yet unknown strength in the spiritual life, man’s want of independence in the face of it has been so serious that he is almost ceasing to claim a spiritual existence of his own. He is like a rubber ball which has lost its elasticity, and preserves indefinitely every impression that is made upon it. He is under the thumb of the mass, and he draws from it the opinions on which he lives, whether the question at issue is national or political or one of his own belief or unbelief.”—The Decay and Restoration of Civilization.