f your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. Matthew 18:8

Late last night I turned on the TV to catch the Republican primary results from Michigan and Arizona before I went to bed. As I was flipping through the channels to get to CNN, I stumbled across the last few minutes of the PBS documentary, American Experience on the Amish.  I only caught about a 3 minute segment, but I can’t get it out of my head.  

The camera follows a tour bus traveling through the lush idyllic farmland of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania as the narrated voice-over of an Amish man says, I want to tell you this story. 

There was a tour bus and an Amish man got on to answer a few questions… So someone asked “What’s the difference between you and us?”  

The Amish man paused and stroked his full beard thoughtfully… “Well… how many of you have television?” All the hand went up.

“How many of you, if you have a family, think that you’d be better off without a television?”  All the hands went up.

He said, “Now, how many of you are going to go home and get rid of it?” No hands went up.

He said, “That’s the difference between you and me. Because we will do it.  If it’s bad for the family we will not have it.”

That’s about all I saw but it sure got me thinking.

Now my point is not that all media is bad or to rail against the dangers of modern culture, although there is certainly room to rant on some of these topics.  And, of course, I am well aware of the irony of reflecting on this particular story while actually watching the TV. Rest easy, I have not yet gone out and bought a black wide-brimmed hat, grown a beard, bought a horse and buggy and removed the electrical appliances from my home.

I was struck, though, by the passion, simplicity and commitment that the Amish community brings to living out their faith.  “It’s bad for my family, so we won’t do it.” That’s a simple straight-forward decision. We may rightfully disagree with many of their choices or even argue about the extremes of their lifestyle, but I admire their conviction and single-mindedness.

Jesus calls us to a similar single-mindedness in following him.  Not a mean-spirited, angry purging of any and all activity that might be remotely considered fun; but a sincere and single-hearted pursuit of what is best. To recognize that there are obstacles to us entering into the kingdom of God, there are things that will destroy our passion for God and there is a battle raging for the soul of our families.  Jesus invites us to seriously evaluate our choices in light of our identity as God’s children and ruthlessly eliminate all that might keep us from pursing him with a whole heart.

The majority of the Christian world has just entered into the season of Lent- the 40 day period leading up to Easter Sunday.  Our church chose not to publicly observe Lent this year; and that’s okay. Christians choose to observe or not observe this time in many different ways.  Whether you have chosen to “give up something “ for Lent or not; now is a good  time to step back and evaluate whether our choices are consistent with our values as followers of Jesus.  And come to think of it, fasting from some form of media or technology may not be such a bad spiritual discipline. Not a sermon, just a thought!