The Tragic Elevation of Buggies and Cars and Email

My Dad was telling me stories recently about seeing Amish buggies while driving through Iowa. This got me thinking about what a tragic elevation these people have made of things like cars and technology. The Bible doesn't say anything about automobiles and combustion engines, but says a lot about what matters:

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.    Why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations--"Do not handle, Do not Taste, Do not touch (referring to things that all perish as they are used)--according to human precepts and teachings? These indeed have an appearance of wisdom, promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:16-17, 21-23)

People in my state are driving buggies because they think it will bring them closer to God, and that is sad. Purity, simplicity, and community, while good, are not the goal of the Christian life. Jesus is. Jesus Christ is the substance of the christian, the final goal of his life, and the means for getting there. Cars and technology are mere shadows, maybe less.

Just as sad as pondering the Amish's doomed legalism is thinking that they might have a point to make by looking at my life. Sometimes I don't live like these things are shadows. I treasure shadowing things, like cars and computers, and email, and music, and good food all too much. The Amish remind me that I am just as apt to miss the point as they are.

Jesus, you are that point, the glorious goal of all our redeemed lives. Come fill us with your Spirit so we can live in a way that makes clear you are all in all.