Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 4
In New York, an Amish preacher personally listened to him and then told him, “God can use you to change your family.” What does that statement assume about how God works through “the weak” (a 16-year-old boy) and through obedience in hostile circumstances, and how does that compare with common evangelical expectations of “getting out” as the main solution?
Another way to ask: What does “God can use you to change your family” assume about how God works through a weak 16-year-old and through obedience in a hard home? How is that different from the usual advice to just “get out”?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The statement assumes God can work through someone who feels small and stuck, using personal obedience as a channel for change even inside a painful family situation. Compared to a “just get out” mindset, the preacher’s counsel pointed the speaker toward staying faithful and letting God work through him rather than only escaping.
- The preacher (Fischer) listened and “ask[ed] me questions,” which the speaker had “no memory” of anyone doing personally before.
- The speaker’s complaint was direct: “it doesn’t work for me to be a Christian here. Dad’s too mean… I’ve tried to please dad.”
- Fischer’s key line: “God can use you to change your family,” which the speaker says “really left an impression… day after day.”
- The speaker’s heart response: “Yes, yes. I want our family to change,” showing the counsel aimed at hope and responsibility, not merely relief.
- Later he admits the move to New York helped by breaking bad relationships, yet the spiritual turning point was not “getting out” but God meeting him and changing his posture toward his dad.