Hoof clops invade the morning stillness.
I watch the buggy pass the house, and I fancy I live in another world. A world with the Amish who live without automobiles, electricity, running water, cell phones, and mirrors.
We live near a large Amish community where about 250 families have chosen to live in another world—a world without the conveniences most of us use and enjoy. They consider them worldliness, the chief evil of life. Isolating themselves from outside influences, they conserve their heritage.
I listen a long time, realizing with each clop growing fainter that I, too, live in two worlds. My ears strain to hear the last sound as the hard wheels rattle a determined tradition of an old-world order.
For a year, we have lived in two worlds: one near the Amish where we retired—living between cow pastures and corn fields—and the other with modern amenities where my husband works part time.
I realize I cannot be at home in both places. I am more at home where heart things surround me. Where the floors creak “welcome home” and memories murmur. Where days are secure, and where I long to return week after week.
There was a TV series long ago, I Led Three Lives, based on the true story of Herbert Philbrick. He was a citizen of the community, a Communist, and a counterspy for the FBI. Not even his family, his church, or his friends suspected his covert activities. For nine harrowing years, he cautiously stepped into each day, frightened.
As believers anticipating an eternal home, we can’t be fully at home in this physical world. We long for the other world—the one we call home. For something more.
Our Amish community has found a way to live out Paul’s words. It may be difficult for the Amish to live simply, without conveniences, or it may not be. Perhaps the pull to the other world is stronger than the desires of the flesh.
Ask God to help you live well in both worlds.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Barb Suiter enjoys hearing God whisper in the events of everyday life and sharing biblical truths and principles from those moments. She does this through writing, teaching, and ministering to women in Lebanon, Tennessee, where her husband serves as Associate Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church. As grandmother of thirteen, there are always stories and delights to share.