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Andrew Peterson:Land Of The Free
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 | I was hesitant to include this song in the list because I've repented somewhat of one of the lines. I wrote this one back in 1998, around July 4. I was supposed to sing a special in church that Sunday morning, and couldn't think of a terribly appropriate song. I had just returned from a trip to Bolivia with Compassion International (my first visit to the Third World) and I was zealous for the cause of the poor, but mainly I think I was fired up against the rich. I include myself in the notion that we in America are spoiled rotten and that we've grown so comfortable that we've forgotten to long for Heaven anymore. I was eager to show that my patriotism lies in my citizenship to God's Kingdom, not to America, but in doing so, I think I offended a few veterans who had risked their lived to allow me the freedom to complain about American apathy, and I changed my tune a bit.
The second time this song was met with opposition was from my good friend Fernando Ortega. He spent a few years of his youth in Ecuador, and lived face-to-face with the kind of poverty I'd only seen for a week with Compassion. In response to the lines about too much sun and too much rain, he reminded me that sometimes people die in mudslides. Some people go hungry because of too much sun (drought). Even though I defended the fact that the song wasn't written for an audience of the poor and hungry but of the well fed and rich, I had to admit he had a good point and I didn't sing that song on his tour. After my second trip to Bolivia with Compassion, I realized that in my songwriting fervor, I had misspoken. I don't believe, as the line in the bridge says, that little Elba and Hugo are "blessed with poverty". Poverty is a result of the Fall, and, though God certainly uses the worst Satan can throw at Him for His own glory and our good, poverty--true poverty--is an evil. It's an evil that we in the church are called to confront. What I meant to say is that little Elba is blessed with simplicity. That's the aspect of life in the Third World that we Americans are lacking. Simplicity is what we sense is so glaring deficient in our American lives when we return from a mission trip. These days when I sing the Land of the Free, I sing this line: I say you're blessed with less than me. |
Send "Land Of The Free" Ringtone to your Cell 
Does it shine upon the faces of the poor?
Do they see in it the brilliance of the place that's been prepared
And dwell upon the hope of what's in store
Or are they just like me do they only see
An opportunity to complain about the heat
And little Elba how's the rain in South America
Does it fall upon the roof tops of the sick
Do they thank the Lord for coming up with such a great idea
And dream about a place beyond all this
Or are they just like us do they gripe and fuss
About the rain and mud when they've had too much?
Cause I'm just a little jealous
Of the nothing that you have
You're unfettered by the wealth of
Of a world that we pretend that's going to last
Well I'm weary of the spoils of my ambition
And I'm shackled by the comfort of my couch
Well I wish I had the courage to deny these of my self
And start to store my treasure in the clouds
Cause this is not my home
I do not belong where the antelope and the buffalo roam
And I'm just a little jealous
Of the nothing that you have
You're unfettered by the wealth of
Of a world that we pretend that's going to last
They say God's blessed us with plenty
I say you're blessed with poverty
Cause you never stop to wonder
Whether earth is just a little better than the land of the free
So I hope you're safe and dry in South America
Cause I'm feeling pretty good in Tennessee
But may you never be so happy that you forget about your home
Your home in the land of the free
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