Personal Theme Song

Do you have one? I found mine a few months ago because I actually purchased the Oh Gravity album for one of my boys. By purchasing the album, you get a link and access code for an MP3 download of an acoustic version of this song which makes the lyrics easier to understand. If you haven't heard how it goes, it's the second song that plays when you go to their site.

American Dream by Switchfoot

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
As top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess

If your time ain’t been nothing for money
I start to feel really bad for you, honey
Maybe honey, put your money where your mouth’s been running
If your time ain’t been nothing but money

I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom

This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

When success is equated with excess
When we’re fighting for the Beamer, the Lexus
As the heart and soul breath in the company goals
Where success is equated with excess

‘Cause baby’s always talkin’ ‘bout a ring
And talk has always been the cheapest thing
Is it true would you do what I want you to
If I show up with the right amount of bling?

Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we’ve been caught singing
Red, white, blue, and green
But that ain’t my America,
That ain’t my American dream

Even as Christians, we hold on to these worldly values. Work 60 hours a week. Get a huge house. Keep our kids away from the "bad element". Drive a hot/cool/sophisticated car. Be responsible. Excel. Be ambitious. Pay for the kids school. Save for a lavish retirement.

We get tired. We neglect our kids, our friends, our spouses. We get buried in and enslaved to debt. We lose touch with the very people Christ sought out. We neglect our relationship with God and Christ and ignore the Holy Spirit. Our kids get spoiled, addicted, and dependant on us. We die before we retire or are too sick to enjoy our time after work. We may even end our own lives when it all collapses and we don't see any other purpose for our lives.

That's not my American Dream! In fairness that was never the American Dream, but we live in a society driven by marketing and buoyed by credit.

The other Switchfoot Song that resonates in my life the last few years says, "We were meant to live for so much more". "Have we lost our selves." "We want more than the world's got to offer."

I'm tired of fighting for just me. I want to live and die for bigger things. I'm turning to God's work for me now. I'm focusing on running and growing Servants Unite to relieve suffering for disaster victims whether after Katrina or after life in a fallen world. I'm focusing on my kids and my wife. I'm focusing on my relationship with an amazing creator, His son, and His spirit. I blew 35 years chasing the excessive American Dream.

I've spent the last 4 years (this week), since finding faith in Christ in conflict trying to get to where I know I should be and long to be. I've spent it sitting in my cube in the bank crying because there was so much more important work to do and I was chained to my desk. I've tried to have it both ways, making a lot of money and doing the Kingdom work I've been given with little sleep and an amazing amount of stress. Now I'm on His path and I have never felt such freedom!

I never realized how impoverished my life was without Christ in it. I never knew, probably still don't fathom, how rich it can be walking fully in faith. I'm excited by the opportunity to find out. I'm intoxicated by that freedom.

Join me?