Modernity In The Oddest Place

I had to run to Walmart.
I could go to one of two stores.
I chose the one with the shorter distance.
I chose the store taking country roads rather than the one where traffic lights abound.

I just had to make a quick trip inside.
I knew that I would be in and out.
I finished, got back in my car, and began to drive out of the parking lot.
I was on the road that runs perpendicular to the parking lanes.

As I was ready to leave the parking lot, I saw the stalls.
The stalls have been built for Amish buggies.
Amish families frequent this Walmart.
They park their horse and buggies inside the barn-like stalls.

I smile whenever I see Amish buggies parked there.
When the stalls are empty, I can easily see the shovel that is kept nearby.
The Amish are expected to clean up after their horses.
They always do.

This day, there was a large buggy that had a roof and doors.
Next to the large buggy was a smaller market buggy.
It had no roof.
It had a bench seat.

On that bench seat, I saw an Amish young man.
Standing next to him, was another young man looking over his shoulder.
Both were dressed in their brilliant colored shirts and black pants with suspenders.
Each young man had a bowl haircut; neither had a beard.

Single Amish men do not have beards.
I wondered why they were in the stall and not in the store.
I thought perhaps, they were waiting for someone who was inside doing their shopping.
I was curious about the young man looking over the shoulder of the other.

As I passed by, ever so slowly, I saw it.
The young man sitting on the bench held a cell phone in his hand.
Whatever he was looking at, intrigued him and the other young man.
The fact that the young man had a cell phone intrigued me.

I thought of Rumspringa.

Rumspringa is a Pennsylvania Dutch term, usually translated as “running around” and derived in part from the German word Raum, which means “space” in the sense of outside or outdoors space, room to roam. “Running around outside the bounds” is a more complete translation. The rumspringa period begins when an Amish youth turns sixteen; at that age, since the youth has not yet been baptized, he or she is not subject to the church’s rules about permitted and forbidden behaviors. During rumspringa, Amish youth — a large percentage of them for the first time in their lives — go on their own in the outside world. Nearly all continue to live with their families, however, and many, maybe even a majority, do not go to the parties or otherwise engage in behaviors that Amish parents and church officials consider wild. Rather, they attend Sunday singings, occasionally go bowling, take part in structured activities supervised by church elders — tame stuff — but they have license to do things they have never done before. An individual’s rumspringa ends when he or she agrees to be baptized into the church and to take up the responsibilities attendant on being an adult member of the Amish community. (Rumspringa: Amish Teens Venture into Modern Vices, June 7, 2006)

These young men seemed to be around that age.
Are cell phones allowed during this time?
How can one flirt with technology and modernity and then go back to their simple life?
Will the young men continue in their way of life after getting a taste of the outside world?

Many return to the Amish faith and get baptized, or else the Amish way of life would die off.
After this time away, the young people may come to realize that their way of life is best for them.
The way they were raised makes sense.
They marry and have families of their own that they will raise Amish, just like they were raised.

Some Amish men have cell phones, I have learned.
They are business men who are toe deep in technology out of necessity.
Their customers need to get in touch with them.
They may even have a computer to use for their business.

I am used to seeing Amish wearing their distinct clothes and riding in their buggies.
I am not used to seeing Amish with cell phones.
It caught me by surprise.
It seemed out of place.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:13-19)

Jesus prayed that His followers would be in the world but not of the world.
Every day, we who are in Christ, rub elbows with people who do not know Him.
They may even deny He exists.
They may be antagonistic to even the notion of God.

We, who are in Christ, cannot live on some little island away from others.
We cannot live in a bubble where we never come in contact with unbelievers.
We are to live in and among all sorts of people.
We, who are in Christ, must make Him known.

We should live, not so much by what we’re against, but rather what we are for.
We are for Christ.
We are for His Word being proclaimed.
We are for His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

Our faith is not a list of don’ts as much as it is a list of do’s.
Do make Jesus known.
Do go out and make disciples.
Do share the Gospel.

We are not to be toe deep in our Christian walk.
We are to be all in.
We are to be serious about making Him known.
In a world that is searching for answers, we can point the way.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life is a Person.
His name is Jesus.