Father today has been all over the board with plenty of good, and some of the bad and ugly as well, Regardless, You are in control and I am grateful that blessings of the good far outweigh the struggles of the bad.
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An interesting conversation took place this morning at one of my churches. Over the last couple of years, we’ve had several Amish families move into our area. One of my members has had quite a bit of interaction with families near his home. He’s provided transport for some of them, they’ve done some work for him, all in all, he’s developed a good relationship with several of them.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the Amish, here is a short description from Wikipedia.
The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German…Anabaptist origins. They are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit*, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God’s word. (Click here to learn more of Gelassenheit. I found it very interesting!)
To most who know of them, who they are and what they do is closely associated with their faith. They still use horses and buggies. They don’t have electricity. They are very respected craftsmen and farmers.
The discussion at church revolved around how many of the Amish in our area bend some of the commonly held rules of their order. Someone mentioned them cutting ice blocks to be stored away for use in warmer weather (remember, no electricity – no refrigerators).
How do they cut it? They use a circular saw.
How is it powered? With a gas engine.
What? They don’t use those kinds of things, do they? Yes, they do.
They bend rules to accomplish a task.
In a later conversation, one member felt the Amish were out of line in a lot of areas – all in the name of their faith. One example is that they don’t pay any taxes – though, for instance, they use the same roads we pay taxes to maintain. And then a few other things were said in that regard.
As I thought over these things later, I found it interesting that we would hold the Amish to certain expectations because we associate their faith so closely with their lifestyle. It made me think, is that the pot calling the kettle black, or what?
We live our lives pretty much however we want. Others may know of our faith, but the question is, do we conscientiously live out our faith in what we say and do each and every minute of each and every day? Or do we bend the rules to accomplish the task at hand?
People are watching us, whether we like it or not. If we’ve ever admitted to following Christ, there’s a standard associated with that. What do people say about how you live your life? And most importantly, how does how you live, reflect on Christ?
Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness. Luke 11:35 AMP
Jan 30th, 2022, Sun, 7:38 pm
