Struggling Patriot

Its been over a year since my last post so I doubt that anyone still looks here anymore. But Here it goes anyway.

I am a patriot -I bleed red, white, and blue. I was raised on Air Force bases across our Country. As a child growing up on the headquarters of Tactical Air Command, every day was like an air show. All I had to do was look up into the sky and there would be multiple F-15's doing cool things in tight formation. My dad was an influential scientist / developer known as the Czar of SAR (synthetic aperture radar, I could explain but then I'd have to kill you.)

I am a patriot - but for a couple years now I have been struggling with the possible conflict between my patriotism and where and how God wants to direct my life. As most of you know I am on a journey attempting to follow The Way of Christ as he reveals it to me.

Christ was apolitical and could certainly not be called a patriot. I have previously dismissed the divergence between myself and Christ in this respect, because I live in the frigin' US of A. I mean those Romans were evil, bad dudes and our country was founded by Christians right?

At my church we are talking about the Kingdom of God and this has renewed my struggle. Can I be a patriot concerned about the USA's Kingdom and at the same time be 100% sold out to God's Kingdom. There was a time when I thought they (the two kingdoms) could not be in conflict so it doesn't matter, but I have a tough time believing that anymore. It even seems to be similar to serving two masters.

As always I'm more interested in your thoughts than mine - what about civic duties? Civil obedience? the military? so many questions