Hey All, Donovan here,

I was on my paper route this morning and at around 4 a.m. a song came on that I have on the nano. It's a song that I have heard a million times but I guess I never really paid attention to the lyrics. I want you all to read these lyrics, think about them, and then read on.

The Great Inversion by The Cobalt Season

Come, my child, away/Come away where we can be/Come , my child, away/Come away/Away with me

Don't you know it?/Child, I hear you when you call/All your groaning and moaning, postponing the owning of everything/And wonderin' is this all/But that was not the plan/Or I should say, it's not the dream/Greedy privitization, big fat corporation, some one Christian nation/How'd they think that's what I mean?

Come, my child, away/Come away where we can be/Come, my child, away/Come away, come and see

They said eye for eye/But I tell you cheek by cheek/They said hustle and work to be comfortable, powerful/I say blessed are the meek/But twist and turn my words/And you could wage war on half the earth/You could kill all the others, the sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers/Mark them by place of birth

Come, my child, away/Come away where we can be/Come, my child, away/Come away and now be free

Don't waste your life away/Waitin' on that brighter day/You really are the one/To bring the healing that's begun...'cause it's begun/And it's all in love I say/Don't opt for a diff'rent way/Stop swallowin' their cliche/As if it's the only way,it's overplayed

We're all overpaid/But feel like we can't get away/That new car won't save the day/Oh no, it's not the way

I said that you would be free/And I mean free indeed/Free from that white middle-class American dream/Free from loneliness, free from greed

Just pick up and follow me/To Kingdom Come/A place where we all will run/A new life that has begun/Right now it has begun

Did you think about them? Crazy huh? It got me thinking about what Jesus meant when He prayed, "Your Kingdom come...on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus Himself asked God that His Kingdom would become a reality on earth as it is a reality in heaven. Am I doing that? Is it even possible to do this while pursuing "Manifest Destiny" and the whole "American Dream"? How have I walked so far from the simplicity of The Way? How do I begin again?

All of these thoughts are racing through my head and I just want to hunch over and cry for what I have become. No wonder Jesus cried as He looked over Jerusalem. He understood that His people had bought into the Empire, they had bought into empirical greed, wealth, possessions, gods, and politics. He knew they were going to kill Him because He spoke of another world; a world where wealth, greed, and possessions were not on everyone's agenda's; a world where He is King and everyone actually gives a damn about others.

I often forget what Jesus said on the Mount and I have to admit, when I read the words that Jesus spoke on the Mount I can't believe what He is saying. Can the Master really mean that? Turn the other cheek? How humiliating!! Hmm, His point exactly. The more I take a real, honest look at myself (my spiritual habits, my sin, my spending habits, my thoughts) I see, in the words of The Cobalt Season, that I am the obstruction. If another world is possible then it has to start with me and my willingness to change. "Perhaps we're the one's we've been waiting for. Perhaps God has just been waiting at our door."

I am in the process of reflecting on my life and the things that I need to give up in order to follow the Master. He meant what he said and I have to stop highlighting what I like and disregarding what I don't. If we're going to be honest with ourselves, the truth is that we're scared. We're scared to give up our comfort for the Kingdom. We're scared to stop chasing our American destiny. We're scared, I'm scared, to just let go.

I don't know where to begin. I've bought into the Empirical American dream and sometimes I feel that it's too late to pull out. Maybe it means losing some money, trading in the $20,000 SUV for the Scooter (100 MPG Shane, 100 MPG), and dying to myself. And maybe this all sounds crazy, absurd, naive, and impossible. But another world is possible; on a quiet day I can hear her breathing.

Come, my child, away/Come away where we can be/Come, my child, away/Come away and be free...

God is waiting at our door...