Buggies on the Highway

For those who live in Amish country, this is no laughing matter.  In fact, I saw an update on the news while I was back at my home in northeast Ohio in November about a court case still in process concerning a driver who hit a horse and buggy driven by an Amish family.  A little boy in the buggy was killed in the accident and the driver of the car was under the influence of a controlled substance (why do they call it a "controlled" substance when it leads to a lack of self-control?).

But I thought about the intersection of Christ with culture as I was nearing my mom's home on one of those days.  On a four-lane highway passing through Amish country, a horse and buggy pulled up to the highway, stopped, waited for a break in traffic, then dashed across.  The picture before me was rather striking.

The Amish have established a way of life which attempts to stay true to Christian simplicity.  You and I would probably differ on many of the specifics that constitute a life of holiness in Christ.  But the willingness of the Amish to maintain a separation between themselves and the world system is honorable.  And yet, that separation cannot be maintained to the extreme.  Every once and a while the buggy has to cross the highway.

Some friends in our church family have been very thoughtful in their approach to raising their family in the midst of culture.  Their business, education of their children, and vision for the Kingdom of God as it is pursued in all their endeavors has been thought through extensively and they provide an exemplary model for other Christian families.

One of the clarifying themes which they have worked through is defining the differences between being people who are exposed, isolated, or insulated.  Those who are exposed have been so left to the influences of the world that they succumb rather easily to the mindset and behaviors of the world.  Those who are isolated from the world become naive and unable to cope when those periodic and inevitable collisions with the world occur.  But those who are insulated have protection from the onslaught of worldly thinking while still being connected to people in the world.  Only those who are insulated (with the Holy Spirit, the word of truth, the power of prayer, and the fellowship of believers) will become influential rather than influenced.

Those three categories are visible all around us.  So many in the church have revered relevance to the point that they unwittingly have wandered into the jungle of compromise and have little that sets them apart for the Kingdom.  Others, though far fewer, seek to be cloistered away in communities of hibernation from the "world" and become ineffective.  The Jesus way, pursued by far too few, manages to be among the people of the world while maintaining distinction and integrity.

In order to accomplish this third way, we will have to become comfortable with discomfort.  The other two ways are all about comfort zones - either ensconced in worldly ways, or in refuge from all threat of battle with evil forces.  Jesus' way meant a life of constant tension - accepted by masses at times, and, at other times, in the cross hairs of their wrath.  If you find yourself drifting back and forth between those two extremes, you are probably following Jesus closer than you know.  You will be loved by some in the world in the morning, and then hated by them in the afternoon.  You will be revered by the church on Sunday, then declared a heretic on Wednesday.

Pretty enticing life, eh?