What's Going on With the Amish?

 

"What's been going on with the Amish these days?"  Lou asked me.

I was completely taken aback.  First of all, I am not an expert on Amish, by any means.  Second, I had no idea what he was talking about -- maybe something to do with the Amish mafia.  "What do you mean?"

"Well," he said.  "I bought some Amish chairs and a couple of them came apart after a couple of months of use."

I told him that I really didn't know.  As far as I knew, the word 'Amish' had just been used as a way of advertising the chairs.

Some terms are used so generally that they have lost a lot of their original meaning.  The word "Christian" has been used as an adjective in association with all sorts of things:  Christian values, Christian homes, a Christian church, and even Christian politicians.

For many of these things, to be Christian means very little.  In Nigeria, roughly half of the population considers themselves to be Christian, while half consider themselves Muslim.  Yet, for many of the Nigerian Christians, the only thing that makes them so is that their parents, or grandparents were Christians.  Or, even just that they were given a Christian birth name.  I am afraid that it isn't that much different to be a Christian in the United States.

It is with such people that the word Christian becomes devoid of meaning.  What once meant to be a disciple, or a follower of Jesus, now becomes a word that indicates a loose association with people or, organizations that use the term Christian to identify themselves.

Mahatma Gandhi was asked why, though he quoted many of the words of Christ, he refused to become His follower.  He replied:  "Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ."

I pray that I might be different.  A true follower of Christ, who serves in word, in deed and in Spirit.