I am surrounded by people who feel that I do not properly pay homage to the country I live in and the 'freedom' I experience from living here. I can understand their sentiments, they are just very patriotic and are like many Believers who say that the United States is the best country in the world.I am very thankful that I was born here in the US, but perhaps more importantly, I am very thankful that I was born period. This is only by the grace of God. Thus, I have a different worldview of this life. I focus mostly on my identity through Christ, not my country of origin.
I feel the Word is very clear about this temporal life; and our journey through it.
1. Believers are sojourners, or vagabonds in this temporal world.
2. Believers allegiance should be to God only, anything less is idolatry (see the Prophets).
3. True freedom is experienced internally, not externally.
4. God loves ALL people and views us all as equals.
So, although this country offers great benefits (at least perceived benefits): freedom, rights, security, stability, substance, etc.., it can never offer more than the Lord. Also, country lines are man made lines and although the United States offers much, it leaves much to be desired as well. Americans can be so easily blinded by Satan into a false sense of identity. The 'benefits' of this land can also be curses in disguise. So forgive me for not being patriotic, I am pledging my allegiance to God and Him alone who loves and desires people of all tribes, tongues, and nations to know Him.
5 comments:
I feel the tension as well. I tried to summarize it over at the meandering. Tell me if you thought I got it.
Yeah, okay, but, did you watch the Shuttle launch?????
You have to admit that THAT is pretty awesome!
And, so far, it's only in America.
but... then... you know me and all that space-stuff.
xo, Crock
Well said. Our citizenship is in heaven first and foremost and God put us here in America because he thought we could do something with the privileges that brings with it. That's my thought anyway. ... Derek Webb, late of Caedmon's Call, has a great album called "Mockingbird" with a song called "A King & a Kingdom" that's about this very topic.
I love the picture you chose for this post, G. My own stereotypes came right up in the fact that the first place I could imagine seeing this picture is on the bicep of a guy with a gunrack in the back window & empty cans of Bud in the bed of his pickup truck. My personal prejudices aside, the silliness of that imagination draws the point into clear focus when I reflect on how many people fully agree with the heart of the image.
I love our country... really. But compared to my heart for Christ, that love is more like how I love "pizza" compared to how I love my wife. Which is whey when I look at the 2 flags hanging in the worship area of my church (...can you guess which two they are?) I feel like it's parallel to tattooing "Aleta" on one arm & "Pizza" on the other... just strangely out-of-sorts.
...And they say idol-worship is out of fashion in the West! As if!
I'd probably be the last person for people to think that I question patriotism; but then again, those people would have good reason. However, my concern is that people within the United States who are so hooked on being super patriotic do so with pure ignorance of why or what they are patriotic to.
I, like John, love pizza & my wife (not in that order), I also love my job - which is like a pizza chef of sorts (did I lose anybody yet), but the thing that so many "patriotic" people miss is that we forget that loving pizza and loving other foods (like a baguette for example) is NOT mutually exclusive -- we do not have to hate one just so that we can love the other.
That's how half the issues we watch on MSNBC/FOX/CNN/etc. begin anyway.
Of course, we don't really need to even to love either/or anyway. There's only one God, & he knows where the true boundaries lie.
C
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