Untheft: Born Again On the 4th of July
It's probably cheating a bit to just put out song lyrics as a blog post, but this song by Rich Mullins really wraps up the tension I often feel about being a follower of Jesus Christ in a country like the USA. (***Be sure to click the link above to see/hear Rich Mullins doing this one live.) - NOTE: I watched the Mullins bio-drama "Ragamuffin" a couple times during February, so that got me focusing on his songs again for awhile.
Land of My Sojourn - by Rich Mullins and Beaker
"And the coal trucks come a-runnin'
With their bellies full of coal
And their big wheels a-hummin'
Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman
Who hid the spies who were lookin'
For the land of the milk and the honey
And this road she is a woman
She was made from a rib
Cut from the sides of these mountains
Oh these great sleeping Adams
Who are lonely even here in paradise
Lonely for somebody to kiss themAnd I'll sing my song, and I'll sing my song
In the land of my sojourn
And the lady in the harbor
She still holds her torch out
To those huddled masses who are
Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them
The immigrant's children see their brightest dreams shattered
Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the
Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos
But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral
And they stoop in the silence
And there their prayers are still whisperedAnd I'll sing their song, and I'll sing their song
In the land of my sojourn
Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you'll come to love it
And how you'll never belong here
So I call you my country
And I'll be lonely for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me
And down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley
All those drain pipes are drippin' out the last Sons Of Thunder
While off in the distance the smoke stacks
Were belching back this city's best answer
And the countryside was pocked
With all of those mail pouch posters
Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of
These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in
When the old world started dying
And the new world started coming onAnd I'll sing His song, and I'll sing His song
In the land of my sojourn
In the land of my sojourn
And I will sing His song
In the land of my sojourn"
***I'll try to follow up in the next couple days with a "real" blog on this subject.
Later in Christ,
The Thief ..... sojourning
Land of My Sojourn - by Rich Mullins and Beaker
"And the coal trucks come a-runnin'
With their bellies full of coal
And their big wheels a-hummin'
Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman
Who hid the spies who were lookin'
For the land of the milk and the honey
And this road she is a woman
She was made from a rib
Cut from the sides of these mountains
Oh these great sleeping Adams
Who are lonely even here in paradise
Lonely for somebody to kiss themAnd I'll sing my song, and I'll sing my song
In the land of my sojourn
And the lady in the harbor
She still holds her torch out
To those huddled masses who are
Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them
The immigrant's children see their brightest dreams shattered
Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the
Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos
But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral
And they stoop in the silence
And there their prayers are still whisperedAnd I'll sing their song, and I'll sing their song
In the land of my sojourn
Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you'll come to love it
And how you'll never belong here
So I call you my country
And I'll be lonely for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me
And down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley
All those drain pipes are drippin' out the last Sons Of Thunder
While off in the distance the smoke stacks
Were belching back this city's best answer
And the countryside was pocked
With all of those mail pouch posters
Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of
These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in
When the old world started dying
And the new world started coming onAnd I'll sing His song, and I'll sing His song
In the land of my sojourn
In the land of my sojourn
And I will sing His song
In the land of my sojourn"
***I'll try to follow up in the next couple days with a "real" blog on this subject.
Later in Christ,
The Thief ..... sojourning
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