As a teenager, one of the most influential books I read was the Joshua Harris bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Last night, I began to read another book by Joshua Harris that just might be as influential as the first book I read of his. The book is called Dug Down Deep. Harris's opening chapter serves as a real attention grabber, especially with its unusual title, "My Rumspringa." As strange as it might sound, rumspringa is a word in the Pennsylvania Dutch language that means "running around." In Amish culture, the church believes that a young person should have liberty to explore the forbidden delights of the outside world before committing to a life of simplicity. At age sixteen, Amish teens enter into a season of zero rules. Rumspringa ranges from simply wearing make-up, playing video games, and using cell phones, to drug use, having sex, and binge drinking. Apparently 80-90% of Amish teens choose to return to the Amish church after their season of taste tasting the pleasures of the world. I suppose the reasoning behind rumspringa is that the young people will see the unpleasantness behind hangovers, and hooligan activity, and return to the laid back life of Amish living. I wonder along with Harris whether the Amish youth are choosing God by going back or just choosing a safer and simpler way of life.
After reading about what Harris called "My Rumspinga" I began to recall my experiences as a teen. Looking back, my season of sowing wild oats, was not as wild as some; yet was altogether bad all the same. I generally respected my parents, and did all I could to please them. My outward performance however did not last long, especially concerning matters of faith. From ages 13-15 I generally went along with the "church thing." I enjoyed the social aspects of youth group, put on a good front around the leaders of the church, and tried my best to outwardly conform to what I had come to envision as Christianity. By the time I was 16, I had lost allot of my ability to perform as one who was deceived into thinking I spiritually O.K. My craving for worldly pleasure overpowered my willpower to obey what I knew was right. I'll never forget the words I heard from one of my peers, it was at a Rodeo, and the individual said, "You sure have a potty mouth." I had never thought of myself as being that carnal, a chameleon yes; but not a potty mouth. At this time in my life everything connected with faith meant duty, and everything connected with the world meant fun. I was as the old country western song writer sang, "looking for love in all the wrong places." At this time in life Toby Keith had come out with a popular song, called, "I wonna talk about me." This was the theme song in my fantasy land. The business of religion became nothing more than a Sunday morning thing.
Mt rumspringa ended when my "me-ology" was transformed through the renewing of my mind and affections to "theology." In sum, my pursuit of pleasure took a turn from lapping up what was left over in a broken cisterns to falling face first into the fountain of living water, where God replenished what was lacking in my pursuits, namely himself. It was through a radically transformed preacher that preached a radically transformational message of pursuing delight in God that my ramspinga ended. I'll never forget the first sermon I heard from this former body builder/hockey player that previously played the position of "enforcer". His first sermon preached at my home church was from Jeremiah 2:12,13 which says, "Be appalled. O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." I knew that I had forsaken God in my quest for fame, lasting joy, and relationship. I was running around (rumspinga) after things that could not fully satisfy.
There are a few young men in my circle of influence that are either in rumspringa or gradually coming out of it. As one who has been there myself, I have special interest in such guys. I really appreciated Joshua Harris's chapter on "My rumspringa" because it caused me to go back in time and reflect upon my conversion experience. I find myself coming to a similar place as Harris did at the end of the chapter in which he writes,
After reading about what Harris called "My Rumspinga" I began to recall my experiences as a teen. Looking back, my season of sowing wild oats, was not as wild as some; yet was altogether bad all the same. I generally respected my parents, and did all I could to please them. My outward performance however did not last long, especially concerning matters of faith. From ages 13-15 I generally went along with the "church thing." I enjoyed the social aspects of youth group, put on a good front around the leaders of the church, and tried my best to outwardly conform to what I had come to envision as Christianity. By the time I was 16, I had lost allot of my ability to perform as one who was deceived into thinking I spiritually O.K. My craving for worldly pleasure overpowered my willpower to obey what I knew was right. I'll never forget the words I heard from one of my peers, it was at a Rodeo, and the individual said, "You sure have a potty mouth." I had never thought of myself as being that carnal, a chameleon yes; but not a potty mouth. At this time in my life everything connected with faith meant duty, and everything connected with the world meant fun. I was as the old country western song writer sang, "looking for love in all the wrong places." At this time in life Toby Keith had come out with a popular song, called, "I wonna talk about me." This was the theme song in my fantasy land. The business of religion became nothing more than a Sunday morning thing.
Mt rumspringa ended when my "me-ology" was transformed through the renewing of my mind and affections to "theology." In sum, my pursuit of pleasure took a turn from lapping up what was left over in a broken cisterns to falling face first into the fountain of living water, where God replenished what was lacking in my pursuits, namely himself. It was through a radically transformed preacher that preached a radically transformational message of pursuing delight in God that my ramspinga ended. I'll never forget the first sermon I heard from this former body builder/hockey player that previously played the position of "enforcer". His first sermon preached at my home church was from Jeremiah 2:12,13 which says, "Be appalled. O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." I knew that I had forsaken God in my quest for fame, lasting joy, and relationship. I was running around (rumspinga) after things that could not fully satisfy.
There are a few young men in my circle of influence that are either in rumspringa or gradually coming out of it. As one who has been there myself, I have special interest in such guys. I really appreciated Joshua Harris's chapter on "My rumspringa" because it caused me to go back in time and reflect upon my conversion experience. I find myself coming to a similar place as Harris did at the end of the chapter in which he writes,
"The irony of my story-and I suppose it often works this way- is that the very
things I needed, even longed for in my relationship with God, were wrapped up in
the very things I was so sure could do me no good. I didn't understand that such seemingly worn-out words as theology, doctrine, and orthodoxy were the pathway to the mysterious, awe-filled experience of truly knowing the living Jesus Christ."
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