Click Here for MP3

Song 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
Wondering, is this all?

But that was not the plan
Or I should say, it's not the dream
Greedy privatization, big fat corporations, 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 cliché
As if it's the only way, it's overplayed

And everyone's overpaid
But feel like we can't get away
A new car won't save the day
It's not the way

I said 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

"Free from that white middle-class American dream." I have thought about this song over and again. Some might say that this song could be considered anti-American. I mean what's so wrong with a dream? What is so wrong about middle class or white? I think that separately these are merely just words describing good things or at least neutral things. Its only when you group them together that they can become, I think, the most dangerous pursuit of any Jesus follower.

I have put in plenty of hard work in my life. I have held down a job since the age of eleven. It has only been recently that I have been able to slow down a bit and look up. Much like a man being freed from the Matrix, I have seen the world around me. While I have been busy pursuing that dream, the world has gone by.

I was told that if you work hard all your life, you will be a success. I was told that as a man I should strive to give my kids everything that I didn't have when I was their age. I was taught to protect my own, secure them within a strong home and to guard over them until which time that they are able to fend for themselves, teaching them of course to pursue the dream.

Safety, security, work, work, work – harder now, more hours, overtime, promotion, more work, less time for the family but a nicer more comfortable home. We need a bigger TV, a smaller car, a better MP3 Player and cell phone. Where does the church fit in to all of this?

It seems as if the church in America has learned to go with the flow, to make it easy on these folks who are pursuing the dream. Why? Because, the dream has replaced everything -- the dream is God now -- comfort, convenience, safety, security for the children, for my spouse, for our future at all costs.

"But that was not the plan
Or I should say, it's not the dream"

It's not the dream! This dream was never Gods dream, nor was it his plan. Is there anything wrong with working a job? No, of course we need to work and provide for our family and with a good ethic, of course. But this pursuit for success can become a kind of idol that prevents us from mixing with the world around us. Get the big job, move to the secluded suburbs, send our kids to special schools and go to sanctified, sterilized churches that plan programs and mixers for the others like us.

We never leave the comfort or convenience of those 5-star neighborhoods in pursuit of Gods plan – God's dream. Instead we carve out a life that excludes all of the others, and we do it in the name of "family, safety, security, faith, and success." We are starting a new thing in the city of Albany that involves waking up from the Matrix, unplugging from the dream and pursuing God's plan. This plan of His is a derailing of our trains from their tracks, and a hard ride down an untested road.

It's going to be hard, uncomfortable, and we might get dirty in the process, but it is definitely What God would have us do.
Sometimes I think we are the ones that need saving the most.

"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"