My Dad

By David Wickey

March 1, 2021

This morning I am thinking about my dad. He was always on the quiet side, and worked hard all his life. He would spend a lot of time in our small shop at home—that is how he got the nickname “Tinker Dan”.

Dad was always looked down upon by other Amish men. As a boy growing up, I remember seeing ministers get a mocking smile on their faces when talking about my dad. I remember feeling so bad inside when I saw that. What they did not perceive is that he had a lot more understanding about the things of God than they could ever know.

I remember how Dad would hunger after God. He would often read the Bible by himself for hours, of course in German. Even my mom would get tired of him reading the Bible and complained of him reading it too much.

One day, when I was 27 years old, the Holy Spirit was dealing with my life. I was so miserabCale that I went to see my dad. I poured my heart out to him about how and why the Amish believed what they believed, and did what they did. He listened to me until I was finished, and then simply said; “In the Bible it says ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’” Dad did not tell me to stay Amish, or to obey the Amish rules and ordinances, but he just simply told me to seek God.

Our mind is very, very powerful. Some of the brightest minds of the world have accomplished some tremendous feats. I am not saying all of this is bad, but what I am saying is that the brightest of the brightest minds in the world cannot understand the things of the Holy Spirit, which are the things Of God! The brightest minds will never understand how to do church, or how to do things that increases membership. Ministers will never become more effective by planning how and where they want to minister with the power of our natural mind. Only if we allow our old Adam mind to be put out of commission by the Power of God, and just simply seek the mind of the Holy Spirit, which is the Mind of Christ, will we accomplish and do the will of God on earth as it is in Heaven!!

I believe that there are so many traditional doctrines of men today in the Church that the human mind has thought up and completely miss-understood the text and the meaning of the Scripture. In the past, the brightest of minds have tried to figure out end times, but so far they have always been wrong. It is no wonder many have given up on Christianity.

Could it be that God wants us to simply do what my Amish dad advised me to do 48 years ago;

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7)?