The Vision
by Laurence Windham

I've always treated life as an adventure. But I have to confess, as I stood on that swinging bridge, spanning the river below me, my philosophy of life was pictured before me. I had parked my truck off the side of the gravel road and, following the directions given me, started across the bridge that moved slightly up and down with every step I took. When I had reached the other side I found myself in a lush valley. The morning mist adorned the surrounding mountains giving the whole experience an otherworldly dimension. I had stepped back in time. I'm not sure what era it was I had entered but I knew it was somewhere after the invention of buttons and before the advent of the zipper. I was visiting an Amish settlement. As I walked the quarter mile to my new friend's house I thought about how these people, separated from the busyness of modern culture, spend their time.

That is the topic of this issue of Every Thought Captive. Time, the most precious commodity of the Western world. More important than even money because time is the one thing we cannot get more of. Most people find that 24 hours a day is not enough. They run out of it each day adding to their burden for tomorrow the things they could not get done today. The next morning's list of things is longer. "Men the unexpected happens, a forgotten dinner date, a child's rescheduled volleyball game, and you still have to buy groceries for the week and now traffic is slowing down, and you forgot to drop off the movie you rented last night now you'll have to do that tomorrow and pay a fine, and when is this traffic going to start moving!!!

There were several gardens of flowers and vegetables along the path. Cows, sheep and goats grazing along the way watched me walk past. Soon, two border collies, somehow alerted to my approach, ran down the path from Ben's house to greet me. I saw Ben down by one of the fields leading a rather large white faced cow. He had seen me first and was quick to return my wave of greeting. As he made his way to the front yard where I was now waiting, all I thought of was how there was probably nothing that he did every day that wasn't significant to the needs of his family and important to the continuance of his lifestyle. All his time was taken up with surviving off the land. There were no distractions from the rudiments of life. Food, clothing, shelter, family, worship, and a worldview that was content to not follow the world outside. Instead of thinking about all the things they did not have (cable television, air conditioning, refrigeration, microwave, internet, and indoor plumbing, to name a few), I thought about how their family was always together and their contentment and joy in the life they were living.

The new buzz word that is catching people's attention today is "Simplify". Myriad books are being printed supposedly to help the frustrated handle or retool their busy lives. What these books mostly do is enable the seekers to cope with instead of escape their present schedules. They offer tips on how to do more things at a time instead of evaluating whether those endeavors are worth the time they are given. Most people are more comfortable with life in the spinning squirrel cage than considering alternatives.

Ben greeted me with a smile, a firm handshake, and a "Good morning" that betrayed his slightly German accent. I had noticed him and his family in town the previous Saturday selling preserves, flowers, vegetables and the like from their horse drawn wagon. I had approached him that day about the prospect of purchasing a rooster. Now, here we were at his farm, and he was leading me over to some pens to show me what he had. His gait was unhurried.

Someone has said that Christians get so busy that they would not hear from heaven if God yelled. Reflection, meditation, journaling, prayer, and true fellowship disciplines that made the church of the past so strong- have been to a large degree lost. The church is weak because these qualities take time. Time we don't/do have depending on what we deem important. When R.C. and I were discussing the idea of a study center several years ago, a good friend of ours cautioned us regarding our paradigm by stating that for it to work it would also have to work in New York City. And perhaps it could. But what you would need is not a yuppie with a Christian version of the sixty second planner but someone who had stepped back in time, someone who did not fit in with the hectic pace of secular society around him.

Here at the Highlands Study Center, our goal is to model and teach our students where their time should go. Those who come as resident students are able to witness firsthand how important time with spouses and children is and how that time is spent. Our task is not so hard because once we do each day what God from His Word requires of us in respect to our responsibilities, we have little time left for the nonsense of this world but plenty of time for the enjoyment of family and friends. Consider coming and spending some time with us

"Which rooster would you like?" Ben asked me. "They are all fine looking birds," I replied. "I'll take the first one you can catch." Ben climbed into the pen and was soon handing a fine specimen of the crowing fraternity. Ben and I had agreed on a price of three dollars for the bird the past Saturday. "Ben," said I as I reached for my wallet, 'that is a five dollar rooster if I've ever seen one!" We both smiled.