How and Why Hochstetlers are Different

I have often wondered what kind of characters my ancestors were. Now I am wondering how their strengths and peculiarities are found in us their descendants, even in me. It is not easy to know a lot about them as they were not writers nor expressive intentionally. They only did their thing in their time, and that is how we have to search out what kind of persons they were. It is therefore a rather subjective matter to glean from their activities and at point meager writings just “who” they were. It seems off hand that they did not uncritically follow others, but did their thing, for better or worse. It could be guessed that they were not highly popular for their individuality, nor genius in their public relations.

Our Immigrant ancestor Jacob left his home in perhaps South Germany in 1738 with his wife and 2 small children. He was only twenty six as he left family and homeland to cross the Atlantic Ocean, hardly expecting ever to return again to family left behind. What courage and confidence he had in making such a life changing decision! We don’t know much about the situation he was leaving, but he was among the first of his faith and family to venture into the “new world.” likely partly because of local hostility to Anabaptist faith. It was only a year after the first of his group had ventured out. He took the chance and his descendants have been affected no doubt by his venturing spirit into the unknown, away from the security of the known..

About 19 years after the above journey, the family was attacked by local “Indians” who murdered two family members and took captive the father and two sons. Legend has it that they could have defended themselves with arms, but refused, standing up for their faith of non violence, contrary to what many would have done then and what would be considered foolish today by many. When the captive son Joseph was with the Indians, he adapted to their way of life and had ambivalent feelings about coming back to his people when he had the opportunity.

We see in these examples character that stood up without regard to conventional thinking and assumptions. They did what they felt was good and right, no doubt going beyond their fears and doubts and the likely attempts of others of less courage and conviction to persuade them otherwise.

It could be assumed then, that the descendants of these pioneering ancestor would continue in this disciplined individualism in faith and life. It may appear that many of the present day family are also free to be themselves and not subject to conventional assumptions. We see this in the way our family in the past two generations has gone global, both in geography and ethnic intermarriage. There are now prospects of DNA from six continents and persons having lived in various countries and in many states away from their parents. They feel unbounded by family to the land of their birth.

Yet paradoxically, the Hochstetler family is still one family and keeps in close contact, using both travel and social media to relate, often on a daily basis. There is a basis of family awareness from the time of being children and maturation, aware of the close family and the broader family. This is also based on a strong religious foundation that is share almost universally. We have a cultural, biological, and religious foundation for remaining unified in a binding way while remaining free to make individual decisions of life.

It seem then that we are not culturally bound to local conventions of life, but free to move about in our own way within the limits of the values of the larger family. We do not take for granted that the way we have always lived, or where, is the way we have to, yet within the parameters of faith and family values.

It is also true that we are free to choose religious affiliations within the limits of our basic faith. We are not denominationally bound, but adhere to a basic faith handed down to us. Our families are geared to pass on faith values, again allowing for “disciplined individualism”. We are free to make decisions and not tied to tradition ultimately in the specific fellowship of our faith. We do not take for granted the specific shape of the working our of our faith on cultural matters unrelated to our basic faith.

It is likely our families along with our faith that makes us unique or at least peculiar among many peoples. There is a balance between structure and freedom, with responsibility at the core. This is in the context of our faith. Our families are not perfect in the process of growing up, but core values of faith responsibility are paramount. There is the confidence that as we follow our parents we will be doing the right thing.

                                              What is Heaven Like In My Mind?

                                                          (My Imagination)

For at least two thousand years people have tried to picture Heaven- the next life after this one. The final book of the Bible has the most vivid images found anywhere. Some take it literally and quite accurately according to our capacity to picture it as a most beautiful place. I suppose my thinking has evolved beyond those images although not eliminating any of those pictures. I want to share some of the details that have come to me in the past years from various experiences and suggestions.

We used to think of Heaven as somewhere up there far away from earth. Some years ago I learned that Gerald Destine, whom we have met only a few times, believed that heaven will be right here on earth. The Book of Revelation does talk of heaven coming down, apparently to where we are, although there would be a new Heaven and a new earth. So maybe it would be right here, renewed.

But how much of the here would continue or resemble the new Earth/Heaven? Some years ago as I was walking through our orange farm in Belize on a Sunday morning in an atmosphere of worship, I suddenly exclaimed, “God are you enjoying this as much as I am?” I went back home and after that, made a map of every tree on the farm, as much as possible, and entitled it, “Our Garden of God.” God made the earth as he wanted it to be, the way he enjoyed it, and the way his image in man would appreciate it as much as he could comprehend it. I have often been enthralled by the wild flowers in natures, in hidden places where no man would ever see them. God must have planted them for his own bountiful enjoyment. So if this is what he wanted man to enjoy even as he does, why would not Heaven be in the pattern of nature as we appreciate it?

Certainly there would be major differences. There would be no heat or cold that would make us uncomfortable. Either we or temperatures would come together comfortably. Our bodies might change, or the weather might! There are also matters of time and space that will be different. Time is a measurement of duration for man's sake so he can tell when things are happening as life here has limited duration. In eternity, time will not be a factor. As God is the light and there will be no need for the sun, according to Scripture, there will be no day or night- just the perpetual light of God's presence- everywhere. Somehow, space also will no longer be a barrier to fellowship either. We will not be limited in traveling ability, but as spirits, we will crisscross distance without reference to space limitations of gravity or inertia. There will also be eternity to meet all the people we knew here and so there will be no longing to meet anyone without being able to access them any time as time will be no more.

On the question of Heaven being on earth. I suppose it is also more plausible with my experience in Belize where we were closer to nature unspoiled. And now back here in Indiana, having the fortunate experience of enjoying our own little Garden of God where we live. It just seems that nature altered a bit would be heaven. There is also our retirement which enlightens our view of heaven. All our needs are supplied without necessitating work. We tend the land as no doubt Adam was to do in the original Garden of God. Just “tending it” so we. It is activity but not work. It is at our leisure, not of our necessity. It is to make this Garden more as we like it, a right God has entrusted to us in making us co-maintainer of his earth. So Heaven will also find us moving about in joyful activity in a glorious Nature environment.

Certainly Heaven is much more than I can pictured here. At least this maybe a beginning as Heaven may be. It would be absurd to assume any close picture of all God has prepared for us. What about the restoration of our personalities which will be renewed and healed , enabling us to relate in joyous harmony with all people? What about the full knowledge and experience of God's love? What of knowing those of the rest of God's creation in other worlds? There will be so much more than we can imagine in the best of our dreams. But it is exciting to start dreaming!

                                             What is Our Aged Perspective?

When I was a youth we felt old people were traditionalist, conservative and “old fashion”. We felt they lived in the past and made up their ideas by outdated thinking that was not very relevant for us today.

Today, half a century later, I am there where we used to think of older people like that. How do we think about our “out datedness” when possibly some youth look at us the way we used to think of our elders? So much about the different perspective on things depends on our age and stage in life.

It is likely a frequent misunderstanding of how we older persons think and why we think as we do. We do not think only in the framework of another age of the past. We actually form our present ideas and values based on an accumulation of all our experiences including the present. We do not base our lives only on 15, 30, or 45 years’ experience. We may have 7 decades of experience on which to base on all ideas and of feelings about reality and life. We can draw on things we learned say, 50 years ago, as well as all we learned and experienced in the decades since. So certainly some things are based on “ancient” knowledge and ideas but they are modified and expanded by events and experiences since that give us a much larger perspective. So instead of taking a stance on a past, short perspective, we base positions on the longer experience in which we have accumulated a lot as we participate in life with the next generations. Constantly we evaluate the present by this long-range perspective. Thus we are not impressed by “conventional wisdom”. This is very true when we think politics, economics, and God’s will for our lives as well as about everything else. It means that we make judgments and opinions based not only on current and popular thought, but also on all of our past as it informs the present.

It can be said that aged people may have a special mentality which only they can really appreciate. It is an interesting experience and matter for us to blend the past into the present. We do this in various ways as a hobby and style of communication. Personally as a couple, we constantly resurrect verbal expressions and music from our distant past and apply them to present situations. Used in German, these often archaic expressions are an interesting form of humor that constantly spring up in our casual conversation. Often we don’t use the contemporary idiom or denotative speech, but we use old particular expressions in new and ways unrelated to their original setting. My father-in-law used to say about our deacon that when he was young his mother said about him, “Davie is so stubborn-headed”, but stubborn headed hardly has the flavor of the German word, and is still funny to us. Another source of bringing ideas from the past is recalling words from songs that we learned years ago and using them to express our feelings of the present. When I am little depressed, I may moan, “O lonesome me”, from Elvis Presley, of almost 50 years ago. In fact in the past few weeks, I have collected 25 such allusions and recorded them. So frequently we blend so much of our past into the present to give a deep or light-hearted approach to present situations, however we feel.

Sometimes we joke about being in our “second childhood,” an expression that used to be used long ago for senile person becoming old and childish. But part of that early childhood is still with us and is romantic at times. For example, Loretta is still intrigued by doll furniture and clothes and nursery rhymes. Perhaps we are freer than earlier to express the unspoiled childishness that is still in us and perhaps reawakened in us. We are not living in the original, but the earlier is living in us and it blends into the present eon, enriching our daily lives. Perhaps having a little more time, being more relaxed, we are a little more creative and reflective to bring the most interesting of the past into our present experience. We are not living in the past, but the past is still with us to enrich our lives.

It seems to me now that many middle-aged and younger persons do not have as much fun with a sense of humor as we do in our private lives. They think too straight forward and often don’t smile at the ironies of life with a sense of humor. When our children were youth, I could hardly be funny to them however I tried. They were too serious and objective, or didn’t they think adults could or should be funny, just “da…” was the response I sometimes received.  At our age now, we don’t have to be serious all the time, not even most of the time. We can stand more at the sidelines and just smile or laugh at the strange things of life. We can see wonder, humor, irony, or incongruities where many persons tend to see only a current set of facts. We stand, watch, and critique life rather than being buried or challenged by it. Being more carefree, we are always ready to see the weird side of issues. After all, what are we suppose to worry about, although we could have plenty to be concerned about.

Frequently we see younger persons expressing their hopes, dreams, and uncertainties. Neither did we nor do they know what the future holds. We know what our life has been, where we achieved our dreams or didn’t. We know youth have options; we also know that life will have twists and opportunities, and attractions so that any young person’s goals may shift as life is lived out. They have many options, but can’t predict how it will all turn out. We look back; they look forward. We can see where we succeeded. where we might have made other choices. We cannot advise younger persons with any great wisdom but they may learn from our lives, although they are living with some different perspectives and opportunities. It seems every generation has to work through its own directions and issues. They can learn from accumulated knowledge of their elders, but they must integrate it into their life in a meaningful way just as their elders are still doing. Probably the greatest guiding light for all ages is, “What will I wish I had done when I look back 5 years from now, or 50 years from now? Projected hindsight, you may call it, to guide you now. From the back of my memory is the poetic line, “Grow old with me, the best is yet to me” which also comes up in a more recent song by John Lennon

                             When You Really Love A Person

You care as much or more about the other person as you do about yourself.

You are often looking for ways to please the other person.

You can keep on loving even over time, trials, and distance.

You would rather see the other person happy than yourself happy.

You can share unpleasant tasks with the other person as well as fun activities.

You can listen carefully to the other person even when you disagree.

You will think what is good for the other person and not only what pleases yourself.

You will often give in to the other person.

You will say it kindly when you disagree with a person.

You can wait for many things, like lunch, going somewhere, or sex.

You can discuss reasons and issues, beyond your own feelings on them.

There is time to plan your life with the other person.

You want to learn about this person as long as you live.

You want to be within communicating distance to this person as much as possible.

You seek common agreement with each other;

You try to agree, not emphasize disagreement.

You will want to do many things in life with this person.

You want the other person to become all he or she can be in life.

Your feelings for this person grow and you discover new reasons to love.

You can see the other person's weaknesses and still love the person.

Even after an argument, you would still sacrifice your life for each other.

Your love is a two way street; you both love each other.

                 

                                                           Who Are the Angels?

If we had a full answer to this question, we would not have to ask it. But not knowing clearly,

prompts us to investigate who they might be. Some things we know and so we have to build on that.

But many things are left to our imagination. 

The following are things we know by Scripture, human experience, or insight;

      They are intelligent, usually using human language.

      They are from somewhere else.

       They come to humans for a purpose.

       There are good angels and bad angels.

       They can communicate to humans and are interested in human life.

        They relate to ultimate good or bad authority- God or the devil.

        They do not seem to respect gravity or inertia.

        They approach humans on their own interest or mission

         They might come by human request.

        They may take a physical form and be visible.

        Their presence may be clear whether they are experienced physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

        They may identify themselves or may not.

         They may appear to persons as a person or be incognito as far as being angelic or from God.

         Angels are only one way God communicates a message.

         They do not explain their usual place of existence.

          They may be known by their message more than by their form.

          Children have their own guardian angel according to Jesus.

What more we might imagine:

         They may be “extra-terrestrial, from another planet or place in space

         They may have movement possibilities that are different from anything we know on earth.

         They may have knowledge of earthlings not limited by physical connection.

          They relate for reasons of their own, which earthlings may not be aware of.

         They may be infinitely more intelligent than us.

          They may be present far more, in fact, more continuously than we have any concept of.

          They have a different mentality than humans which we would only have to guess about.

           Some may be from a “place or planet” where sin had not come. 

           They may be able to change the form of their being at will, e.g. physical vs spiritual, etc.

           They may not be confined to space and time as humans are.

           We do not know if their knowledge is limited or omniscient like God.

          They may be unlimited in number or limited.

          They maybe from eternity or in time.

           Whether adults have a literal personal guardian angel or just one when needed.

                                                    Where Am I – and Going?

Having written most of my biography and perhaps still having, who knows, how much of my life ahead of me, how could I possibly write the last chapter of my life? I may have 15 to 20% of my life ahead of me, or much less. It is something I often guess about. Knowing a bit about statistics, yet aware that statistics are only averages, I have no indication of where I will be in contributing to longevity statistics. Yet I gather that I am more likely to have between 5 and 10 years left than 15-20 years, considering that I am at 81 and a half presently as Christmas approaches this year. Thus I am interested in writing a present stance without much of any guess how much time I have left.  If I follow one ancestor, I would have about 19 years. But her husband, well I am already 11 years past his demisal age.  So here I am and where I am going as far as I can guess.

I am keenly aware that I have a bit less strength and motivation for activity than 5 years ago, yet I feel that in most ways I am still very much, almost totally, the same person as I always was. It's an easy deception to think I still am who I always was. Most marked of this ambiguity is that I think that it should be so easy to do something like repairing the house or working on a rental property, yet I don't want to to it for reasons I can't justify. It seems I am lazy, contrary to my life long view of myself and unacceptable to my ego. So I am sitting uncomfortable in a no man's land of feelings and motivation vs obvious abilities.

There is also another ambiguity of how old I really am. People knowing my chronological age can easily classify me among the old people, Yet to myself I never got there. I am still practically where I always was. I frequently have to double check on how people see me and who I really am. It is rather complicated because some treat me socially nearly as if I was “normal” just like them. Or am I deceiving myself in thinking so? It come down to the fact that I don't really know who I am, or how old I am supposed to be. It seems I am caught in a self-image of being between a little old and actually old. Is there something like middle old age? If that is a category, I will tolerate myself thinking so.

.

A third ambiguity of my age is that I never had any speed bumps on the way- no point of change like a disability where I had a reason for acting old..No health problem that slowed me down. Not even a retirement age threshold. Perhaps the biggest jolt was moving from Belize in 2011, but even that move was gradual over period of years where we just stayed longer each year until we did not go back any more. It just documents that I have little gauge to show where I am as I have no idea when and how I got here- except one thing- I didn't die on the way. Perhaps death will also not happen at one point; we just gradually fade away. Not too bad a way to go.  Tongue in check? Perhaps slightly.

So here I am in aging. Where, I really have little handle on. I just know I have some excuse for being a little less active which people are willing to grant me. I also have less motivation for expanding my life, like investments and updating our house beyond minimum upkeep. Even having a real garden is a little too much. Mowing the lawn is OK- for the summer. Winters I look out and watch the snow falling, and sit in my study reading and daydream like at this writing. O yes, all my other writing that I am trying to manage and preserve for another generation and many generations, so they know who was here for a while. So where am I going?

Judging from the past 15 years I am going nowhere fast, but then not assured of the opposite either. Yet there are no clear health bases for thinking anything is going to shift rapidly in my life. Any abrupt change in health would be a departure from  my past style. Yet I have little assurance that the future might not be much different from the past. We have often prayed that our final years would be without great dependency. At least that is in my mind when we pray for health all our days. May God grant it.

SEVENTY OR EIGHTY THINGS FOR WHICH LIFE IS TOO SHORT

Life is too short...

1. To complain about your spouse’s housekeeping when you can just as well do it yourself.

2. To wash the dishes 3 times a day, unless you have visitors, free labor, like children or grandchildren, if it is only you and your spouse.

3. To try being a millionaire by working or striving.

4. To worry about what you don’t get done in a day.

5. To keep up with changing fashions when classics are always in style and dignity.

6. To wash your car every week.

7. To do 115% on a menial job when 95% of perfection will do well and in half the time.

8. To make children do things your way when it is not a matter of morality, safety, or efficiency.

9. To spend a day without reading God’s word, a newspaper, and some pages in a good book.

10. To lie in bed when you can’t sleep when you can get up and do something significant.

11. To quarrel with your spouse just to win an argument.

12. To be distracted by grudges longer than 60 seconds.

13. To wear yourself out so you can rest or take a vacation.

14. To live for yourself, even if you tithe your money.

15. To skip a day without prayer.

16. To maintain an acre of lawn.

17. To worry about yesterday or tomorrow.

18. To neglect your family for anything.

19. To take everything seriously, especially your own opinions.

20. To worry about your failing faculties.

21. To remake your spouse or anyone else into your image.

22. To ignore a child’s cry for love and withhold support and a hug. .

23. To lavish love on yourself with selfish entertainment such as TV when there is someone right there to love, like a child trying to crawl onto your lap, begging for your attention.

24. To make excuses when the real reason is, you just don’t care enough to act.

25. To live the unexamined life.

26. To hesitate when the obvious is before you.

27. To wait to enjoy your family until they are a bit older

28. To watch programs like Feed the Children and World Vision, and grow old when others can’t because you only watched the programs and did nothing about it. .

29. To mope over your failed dreams when you can pray and let God do it a better way.

30. To strive after wealth which does not satisfy.

31. To put off until tomorrow to do the good you should have done yesterday or today.

32. To wait for a better day to share the good news of Jesus.

33. To live without priorities and goals.

34. To lose sleep over what might have been rather than considering insomnia a gift of God for fellowship with Him.

35. To worry about the rainy days at the end of life.

36. To grow older with desperate needs around us and delay in doing anything about them.

37. To repay a fraction of our debt to God for his habitual goodness to us.

38. To live for the day you can retire.

39. To hope you will feel more like helping the poor tomorrow

40. To stop sowing good deeds until you see the fruit of your work.

41. To let secret sins stifle your faithful service to God.

42. To stay depressed over strained relationships.

43. To take a long summer vacation ever year when you need only half that amount to touch base with family and church to rejuvenate.

44. To stand there buttoning a long shirt front when you’re chaffing at the bit to get on with life.

45. To let months and years slide by without filling them with activity of eternal consequences.

46. To allow other’s negativism to get under your skin and hinder your service to God.

47. To take a long vacation when you are restless to be immersed in meaningful activity of service that is waiting for you.

48. To let marriage difficulties hang and not seeking understanding and resolution.

49. To live with personal moral dilemmas and bondage.

50. To let would be visitors wait at the door just because you have had enough visitors for a day.

51. To worry in the night about matters you know you can solve better by sunlight.

52. To neglect hobbies involving nature and the great outdoors by which you can share God’s joy of creation.

53. To be ignorant and unobservant and miss half the show of life.

54. To be concerned only with news and not reflect the meaning of happenings

55. To let another year go by and not be 365 days ahead of the past.

56. To remember, record, and photograph every interesting and special thing that happens.

57. To memorize all your ancestral connections back to your original immigrant, unless it comes easily.

58. To limit yourself to one culture when the world is full of colorful and curious cultures.

59. To coast along in the life span with only your own age group and ignore the energy and optimism of youth and the wisdom and contentment of the elderly.

60. To follow one’s own plans and miss the best way of God

61. To lie awake at night idly thinking when one could be up and doing something constructive in the environment of the home, the mind, or God.

62. To be patient with an unconstructive or unfruitful life.

63. To retire from life before God takes you away.

64. To start doing something good until you have it all figured out and everyone approves.

65. To save for a rainy day when it is flooding all around you right now in the global village.

66. To only look back without a vision for the future.

67. To see the years slip by without knowing what happened. (What did happen, anyway?)

68. To have any hobby that consumes a great deal of time before you are in wheel chair.

69. To spend most of your life making payments on your house.

70. To spend any more time dreaming up more of these philosophical ideas.

      

UPDATED AT 80 YEARS

71  Spend half your earning life paying off the house you live in.

72. Spend more years of pursuing education than you will find useful in your life.

73 To wait to really know your children until they are grown up.

74.To spend long weeks just to make a better living.

75. To wait until you are secure financially to find out what was really God's plan for your life.
     
76. To neglect learning to enjoy nature as God's wonderful home meant for you and everyone.
     
 77.To give second place to God when you expect to spend eternity with him.

78. To fail to show personal love to your spouse every day. (if you marry)

 79. To not observe how your parents went before you into their aging years; you will be there before you realize what happened.

  80. To realize how short life really is until it is almost gone.