Josiah for President

by Martha Bolton

  “Ah, gut. What time?”

  “He said around two.”

  “Fine, fine.”

  Josiah took his wife into his arms. It was a cold night for spring, and the warmth of her body next to his felt good.

  “President …” He laughed.

  “You’d make a gut one,” she said.

  “Elizabeth, my love, I’ve got everything I need and want right here.”

  JOSIAH WAS SITTING AT THE KITCHEN TABLE, DRINKING A CUP OF coffee and staring out the window, when Elizabeth entered the room. It was much too early for either of them to be up.

  “Guder mariye. You’re up early,” she said.

  “Couldn’t sleep. Sorry. Did I wake you?”

  “Your absence always does.”

  Josiah smiled, then reached out and took her hand.

  “I guess I can’t get it out of my head,” he said. “Why would Mark even think of such a thing?”

  “No gut deed goes unpunished, jah?”

  Josiah nodded.

  “Well, it’s over, so put it out of your mind,” she said.

  “You’re right. Got too much to do around here to waste any more time on such foolishness.”

  At the first sign of daylight, Josiah donned his hat and went outside to let the horses out of the barn and into the pasture. A now-familiar car made its way up his driveway. It was Mark, of course.

  “I had a feeling you’d be up,” Mark said as he exited the vehicle.

  “Gut to see you again, my friend, but it’s still no,” Josiah said.

  “That’s fine, fine. I understand. I decided to stay the night in Lancaster, learn a little more about the place. I’m on my way home now, but figured I’d stop in one last time and check. But that’s okay. A no is a no. It is a no, right?”

  “You must’ve been something else over there in Washington.” Josiah laughed.

  “I do tend to be determined when I want something.”

  “That’s a gut quality, my friend, as long as you want the right things.”

  “This is the right thing. My instincts say it is,” Mark said.

  “You trust your instincts; I’ll trust my heart.”

  “Don’t let our country go into the ditch, Josiah. You’ve got answers for us.”

  “What was it your GPS lady said? Recalculate? That’s your answer, Mark. Not me. The country just needs to recalculate and get back on the right path. You don’t need an Amish president for that. You can do it yourselves.”

  “If it was that easy, we would’ve done it already.”

  “You won’t change my mind, Mark.”

  “Well, I also wanted to thank you again for all the hospitality you and Elizabeth have shown to me.”

  “You’re most welcome. But it’s still no.”

  “I understand. I’ll be back again someday. I’m getting to like this town.”

  “Just get me out of the news, Mark. Respect my family’s privacy.”

  “I will,” Mark promised. Then he waved good-bye and returned to his car.

  Josiah stepped into the barn to do some cleaning up before the vet arrived. After a while, when too many questions began to fill his mind, he knelt down by a bale of hay and decided to pray about the matter. Not that he hadn’t been praying about it already, but now he knew he needed direction, or some kind of validation, on whether he was doing the right thing. He was convinced that Mark’s accident hadn’t been a random occurrence, that it had been a part of God’s plan. But for what? Surely not for Mark’s outlandish proposal. Or was it?

  “SO DID YOU HEAR THE BENDER FAMILY HAD THEIR BABY LAST night?” Elizabeth asked Josiah over dinner that day.

  “What did she have?”

  “Another boy. They named him Samuel.”

  “Gut strong name. Is he doing gut?”

  “Jah, very gut.”

  “And the mother?”

  “Oh, she’s doing fine.”

  Josiah nodded, pleased at the good news, then returned to the topic that still weighed heavily on his mind.

  “So do you think it would ever be God’s will for one of us to do something like that?”

  “Have another baby? Well, Josiah, first of all, it would be me having it” — Elizabeth laughed — “and secondly, when it’s God’s will, it will just happen like all the times before, jah?”

  Josiah loved Elizabeth’s easy sense of humor. But he also wanted her validation that he had done the right thing.

  “I meant run the country.”

  “Oh, that. I thought you already told Mark no.”

  “I did. But there’s something inside me that … well, to be honest, I keep wondering if this is something I’m supposed to do. Maybe the country does need someone like one of us right now.”

  “Josiah, what are you saying? You know it’s out of the question. It goes against the Ordnung.”

  “Well, I’d want the bishop’s blessing first, of course.”

  “And he would never give it. He can’t give it.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why are you even thinking about it?”

  “Just thinking, that’s all.”

  “You should leave it alone, Josiah. The bishop would have been the one to tell you if God wanted you to do such a thing. And he hasn’t. And he won’t. Think about it, Josiah. If it’s troubling your soul this much, it can’t be from God.”

  “What if it’s stirring my soul instead?”

  Elizabeth had no answer.

  Josiah didn’t speak about it to Elizabeth for the rest of the day, but it remained on his mind. He thought about it during the vet’s visit. He thought about it while he was out working in the field. He thought about it while he was playing with his children before supper. He thought about it in bed that night while he stared out the window at the stars.

  What if he really was the one to help the nation during this difficult period in history? What if the concept of getting back to basics was the answer for the country? Who better to represent a back-to-basics philosophy than one of the Plain people? What if Josiah was someone who, as the Good Book said, was created “for such a time as this”?

  Josiah’s answer was still no, but he was beginning to be less adamant in his refusal. Maybe it was time to talk with the bishop about the matter. Just to get his perspective, even though Josiah was quite certain what that would be.

  CHAPTER 14

  “YOU WHAT?” BISHOP MILLER SAID WHEN JOSIAH STOPPED IN AT his house the following day to talk over his predicament. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I heard you correctly. Did you say you are considering running for president?”

  “Just asking questions, that’s all. It wasn’t my idea, Bishop Miller.”

  “Then where’d it come from? You eat some bad sausage?”

  “Remember that fella who drove his car into the ditch here a while back?”

  “The congressman?”

  Josiah nodded.

  “Well, for some reason, unbeknownst to me, the fella got it in his head that what the country needs is a president with our Amish sensibilities.”

  “But we don’t get involved in national politics.”

  “That’s what I told him. But now I understand he’s gone and caused quite a stir around the country.”

  “An Amish president would cause quite a stir. In both our worlds.”

  “Well, the congressman went ahead and put my name out there, and now he says I’m running fourth in the polls.”

  “What do you mean ‘running’? You’re not on the ballot, right?”

  “Of course not, no. He’s just been talking about me to the people and reporters.”

  “You know, I heard about something like this from a tourist a week or so ago, but I told him it couldn’t happen. We don’t do that. I had no idea it was you.”

  “Well, neither did I.”

  “You told him to put an end to this, jah?”

  “Why, yes, of course.”

  “Gut.”

  “I didn’t take him seriou
sly at first. But when he told me I was in fourth place, well, I started wondering if maybe God was trying to tell me something.”

  “As your bishop, I would have been the first to hear from God, my brother. And I can assure you, I have not heard any such thing on the matter.”

  “With all due respect, Bishop Miller, I can’t help but —”

  The bishop cut him off. “The fact that you would even consider such a decision is blatant disrespect of the authoritative order of this district, Josiah. As your bishop, I must implore you to examine your heart, my brother. We do not run in national elections, my brother.”

  “Yes, I am fully aware of that, Bishop Miller. And I do respect and honor your position in our community.”

  “And that is why you told him no, jah?”

  “Several times. But listening is not the man’s gift.”

  “But you said it?”

  “Jah.”

  “Gut. Sooner or later, he will have to hear it.”

  Josiah started to leave, then hesitated. The bishop, however, didn’t give him any room for further debate: “Josiah, I could never give my blessing on something like this.”

  “Of course. That’s why I came to you. I need your advice on what to do if he doesn’t stop his campaign.”

  “He must stop it. There is no other choice, Josiah.”

  “I know. But …”

  “But what, my brother? Surely, you wouldn’t …”

  “No. It’s just … Well, I have to admit, I do find this whole matter a little amusing, don’t you?”

  “The White House is no place for joking around, brother.”

  “They say Abraham Lincoln had a keen sense of humor.”

  “Jah, but he presided over a bleak time in America’s history. We needed the healing power of laughter back then.”

  “Perhaps we do again, sir,” Josiah said.

  ELIZABETH WONDERED WHAT WAS TAKING JOSIAH SO LONG AT the bishop’s house. She knew her husband had the gift of persuasion, but surely he hadn’t managed to talk the bishop into letting him run for president, had he? Such a notion deserved to be tossed out immediately. There were more important matters to tend to — such as their family, their farm, their church, and all the community events that needed planning. Their lives were full enough already without adding the complication of the outrageous plans of an Englisher!

  Elizabeth liked Mark well enough. But like Josiah, she possessed that one quality that refused to be ignored — common sense. When an idea came along that went against the grain of common sense, it wouldn’t leave either of them alone until they changed their course. Common sense was Elizabeth and Josiah’s compass. Running for president went against that compass. Josiah knew this, and the bishop would agree. Elizabeth was certain of it.

  But what was taking so long?

  Elizabeth sat down on the sofa and picked up some quilting squares from the basket next to her. She began to sew. Sewing always calmed her nerves. Maybe it was seeing all the separate patchwork pieces coming together and taking shape. There was an inherent beauty to that — two or more seemingly unrelated items suddenly taking the form of something unexpectedly lovely.

  Whatever it was about sewing that was helping take Elizabeth’s mind off her husband’s visit with the bishop, it was working. Almost. Elizabeth stitched and watched the door, and then stitched some more and watched the door some more.

  “Josiah will be home any minute now,” she said to herself. “Any minute.”

  JOSIAH’S MEETING WITH THE BISHOP LASTED LONGER THAN another minute. There was much to discuss, and it seemed neither of the men was in any hurry.

  “Don’t we sometimes have to make a stand for what we believe in, Bishop Miller?” Josiah asked.

  “Jah, but all within the guidelines of the church. This is clearly outside of those guidelines.”

  “But haven’t some Amish entered politics?”

  “Local offices. Run for any local office you want, brother. But serving as president of the United States — assuming an unknown Amish man from Lancaster County could even win such a position — would require you to make decisions and live in such a way that would be in opposition to our beliefs.”

  “Like sending troops to war?”

  “For starters. We’re peaceful, or have you forgotten that?”

  “I would make sure everyone knows my position on war.”

  “And what about everything else? The president doesn’t exactly live a Plain life. It’s hard to maintain humility in such a setting. The temptation to become prideful would be overwhelming.”

  “I don’t have a clue about being president or living in the White House, so I don’t know what would be required of me. But if I were called upon to do it — and I’m not saying that such a thing would even happen, but hypothetically speaking, if it were to happen — I would tell Mark and the American people that I would bring my Amish faith and Plain ways to the White House. Everyone would know where I stood from the very beginning.”

  “Until the first compromise … hypothetically speaking.”

  “I wouldn’t compromise, sir.”

  “Maybe not at first, but then a second temptation would come along and …”

  “No compromise.”

  “And a third and a fourth … They’d keep coming at you until you’d finally give in. You’d change a little here, a little there, and before you’d know it, you would bring shame to our community and dilute your faith, my friend. Can you not see that?”

  Josiah wanted to answer, to tell the bishop that there was no way he’d ever fail the test, that he would stand up to every temptation that could possibly come his way, that he would be a shining example of what it meant to be Amish. But even he knew he couldn’t make such a vow. He was human, and humans failed. And when a human failed in the office of president, it was magnified beyond the imaginable. Josiah’s actions wouldn’t affect only him; they would affect his friends and family back home too. Josiah wasn’t about to let anything hurt his family.

  No, should Mark not do as he promised and end the speculation of an Amish man running for president, then Josiah would have to clear up the matter himself. Josiah Stoltzfus wasn’t going to be running for any office, most assuredly not the office of president of the United States!

  Still, one question haunted him, and he had to ask Bishop Miller.

  “But what if that politician is right? What if the people do need me to serve them in this way?”

  “We must please God first, Josiah. That is where our allegiance lies.”

  “And what if this is what pleases him?”

  “What pleases God is obedience, Josiah,” Bishop Miller continued.

  “And that’s what I want to do — be obedient to what he may be calling me to do.”

  “And you think it’s to run for president?”

  “I’m not sure what I think. Before that politician came here, the thought never would have crossed my mind. But now … I don’t know.”

  “Have you heard from God on the matter?”

  “You said yourself that sometimes God doesn’t answer us right away.”

  “Jah, often we do have to wait. Are you waiting, my friend?”

  Josiah didn’t answer. When it came to helping others, waiting never came easy for him.

  ELIZABETH CONTINUED WITH HER SEWING, TRYING TO KEEP HER mind off her husband’s meeting with the bishop and what might be taking place there, but no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts drifted back to the two men.

  Ever since the fatal buggy accident that took the life of their eldest child, Elizabeth had secretly held a fear in her heart about Josiah’s well-being whenever he drove their buggy after dark. The idea of an unaware automobile driver coming upon the buggy in the blackness of night left her unsettled. The idea of any of her family being outside of her watchful and caring eyes was always difficult for her. Elizabeth wanted to trust God with their safety, but deep down inside, she wanted to help him a little with it too.

 
So she continued watching and waiting. And she worried. That’s what many a wife and mother did best — worry.

  WHEN JOSIAH RETURNED HOME, HE FOUND ELIZABETH SITTING on the sofa sewing. She looked lovely in the candlelight, every bit as beautiful as she had looked on their wedding night. She also looked relieved to see Josiah standing in the doorway.

  “You coming to bed?” Elizabeth asked, putting down her sewing and greeting Josiah with a gentle kiss.

  “In a little bit,” Josiah said.

  “What did the bishop say?”

  “What I figured he’d say.”

  “Are you going to write Mark and tell him what the bishop said?”

  “Jah. I will take care of that first thing in the morning.”

  It was what was best for both of them and for their family. Even if Josiah wanted to run for president, going against the church in such a manner could hold disastrous consequences. Perhaps even a shunning. Yes, Josiah had made the right decision.

  Elizabeth walked toward their bedroom, but before she reached the door, she turned back to Josiah and looked at him. Josiah knew she knew him well enough to realize that something was bothering him. She didn’t speak for a moment, but then said, “You’ve decided to run, haven’t you?”

  Josiah didn’t answer verbally, but he knew she could see the answer in his eyes.

  “Is this really what you want to do?” she asked.

  “No. But I believe in my heart it’s what I must do,” Josiah said.

  Elizabeth leaned into Josiah’s arms. “I’m afraid, Josiah.”

  “That I’ll lose?” he asked.

  “No,” she said.

  MARK, CARL, AND A FEW VOLUNTEER STAFFERS HAD STAYED LATE at the Josiah for President headquarters, this time taking down the Josiah for President posters and boxing them up.

  “Well,” Carl said, “it was a good idea while it lasted.”

  “I can’t force him to run,” Mark said, wishing it weren’t true.

  “I know. Still no news from him? No change of heart?”

  “Nothing. And he’s starting to slip in the polls. Guess the novelty’s wearing off.”

  “Can’t elect a candidate the people have never seen. Voters want to know who they’re sending to the White House. They’re funny that way.”

  Mark nodded. “I was probably an idiot for even thinking this would work.”