This last week I had the great joy of going to watch a hockey game, for free I might add, it was tons of fun, as I knew it would be. But as they always do at the start of any sporting event there was the National Anthems, I say anthems because there was a team from Canada in the game, and as the American National Anthem was being played I started to tear up. But not for the reason most people in America do. Not because I loved the anthem and felt some great patriotism. Not because the guy's voice was so amazing, and it really was amazing. I started to tear about because I could think only of miss guided worship, commitment, and passion........................
I love America, I really do. I count my blessings everyday that I live here. That in one hour of work I make nine days worth of money in many countries. I count my blessings that I live in a county where air conditioning and heat are viewed not as a luxury but rather a normal part of everyones house. I'm glad I live in a country were over 90% of people, including me, have a job. I truly love America. But I am not an American. In case you missed that I will write it again.... I am not an American. This is not my home.
So where does this leave me? Standing, crying, at a national anthem I will never call my own? And here is where my greatest struggle has come in writing this. Its the fact that I love America but can never call myself an American.... I belong to God's kingdom first and foremost. No I am not an "American Christian" I am a Christian who happens to live in America.
The line that is the title to this blog is by the band The Avett Brothers and I feel as though this is something all of us Christians in America need to hear. We need to know, and live, in the reality that the next president will not change our lives. We need to live in a way that changes the world ourselves.... we need to stop being Americans, Republicans, Democrats, Tea Partyers, and start being followers of Christ. Stop view America as something that it is not. It is not now, nor was it ever, a "Christian Nation". There is no such thing! Not here on earth until Jesus comes back to earth and sets up his kingdom. So stop living your life like this is a Christian nation and start living your life like you are an outsider who is longing to be home.
I think at this time of the apostle Paul who boasted about being a Hebrew, and Israelite, and a Descendant of Abraham, and yet later said "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Paul, to me, seemed to live ever with his body and mind in the present well never losing site of the future in heaven. He never lost site of his real home. I pray we can all learn to do the same. I pray we can all live for Christ in a world that is violently against us. I pray we.... No! I pray I can learn to live as a foreigner in a land that will never be mine. And I pray I can ever live with my eyes on home.
....................... I think of the thousands upon thousands of men and women who have died for and against America. I think of the many, many Christian men (and women) who served in war, who killed for a Country that is not their own. I think of the way many Christians support war. I think of my friends when asked the Question "When should violent action, like war, be used" and they answer, "when there is no other option". I wonder is that what Jesus would have said? I wonder if Jesus who said “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” would have today considered himself an American? And finally I wondered where to go next? How to go about living a life as someone who is not an American?
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