The American Dream

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Today I walked in the woods. It wasn't far from the hubbub of the city. If I paused to stand instead of walk, then the space left by the clunking of my hiking boots was quickly filled with the ocean-like constancy of traffic in the distance. This didn't bother me though. I know where I live, in the city. I just wanted a momentary reprieve to think. We're considering buying a house. More accurately, we're planning on it. I'm torn between competing values. The value to own something - put my hands in earth that belongs to me, look out across a field or even just a 10 sq. ft. picket-lined area and know it is mine. The other value is that I not fritter my life away with the incessant checkpoints of a 21st century life. I know this is the next step in many ways. Marriage, kids, a home, etc. I don't just want to avoid it because it's the obvious one. I want to avoid it because I don't want to change. I think of myself owning and becoming a slave to debt, beholden to another man or men. I think of getting sucked up into the whirlpool of checkpoints and never coming out. 

Can I pursue this next step and not fall in liege to the American Dream? Can I put so much earthly money into earthly things and still hold a transcendent allegiance to God? This is what I prayed through and for as I walked through the woods. God, can I take this step and still be the man you want me to be? Will my attention forever be conflicted? I walked along a river, up a mountain, by a waterfall, down on a muddy trail and eventually got back in my car and drove back to the heart of the city. But I made my heart clear to God. God, I need you. I pray this prayer to you.

May the American dream

Have no hold on me

May I serve a kingdom and king

Only

May the American dream

Have no hold on me

But let my life mean

Something

For eternity


There are cars and there's clothes

A healthy portfolio

All the numbers that rule in my life

All the castles on sand

All these mansions of brick

Make it hard to lift up my eyes

Oh God, please help me lift up my eyes

 

I want a nice life

Some nice kids

A nice family

With straightforward years of ease

I want a career that pays

For my wants and my needs

And to kick back after it all

Don't I deserve it after all?

Oh God, let me then hear you call

May the American dream

Have no hold on me

May I serve a kingdom and king

Only

May the American dream

Have no hold on me

But let my life mean

Something

For eternity

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