Abraham and I are just finishing a new dance called Underground. Everyone has something that buries them. It may be a specific time or experience from the past. It may be an emotional mood that continually comes back to draw you into ‘the pit’. It has the power to invade your thought life and take over your attitude with depression or aimlessness. So in this context we ask men “What is YOUR underground?”.
Abraham acts out Christ Who was literally put underground as a result of taking on all men’s deepest problems and overcoming them through His resurrection. Think about it. When Jesus expired it actually caused an earthquake (Matthew 27:54)! (Jesus always does things in style.) We wrote this song “Life breaks death” (“La vida rompe la muerte”).
In each individual situation a man must find the PRACTICAL application of how the resurrection can break your “underground”. I wrote a Trance/House beat song with the sound of an earthquake and the footsteps walking away from a shattered tomb. (I tested it in the market the other day. When I saw some “burnouts” draw close and start to groove I knew I hit “the mark”.)
Sarah just finished a modern rendition of the Prodigal Son and Elizabeth and I just finished working on a dance called “Dare to Dream”. It also has a sequence of movements and words which convey the struggles of people who basically just exist day to day. Wake up, go through a routine and go to sleep. She starts it out singing “Nothing is forever, nothing is for real, nothing makes it better, nothing seals the deal”. They she says the world says “Dream big”. “Dream big?” she asks. The bigger you dream she says, the bigger you are let down. Then the dance begins. A life of grave routine breeds nothing but misery and death. Man was not created to EXIST but to LIVE in and for Jesus.
Over our many years of ministry throughout the world we have been sewn together with multitudes of songs and dances. Usually I write the song and they begin constructing the dance. It is such a privilege to work side by side, heart to heart, with each of my children to create things together that have never been written. Then to display to men, together, a dance and idea of hope and Jesus.
We are always sensitive to write them in such a way that they are “cool” and not corny or religious and closely watch people’s faces during our performance to determine if we are hitting “the mark” or not. We joke around about the test of “the park” which we used to visit in São Paulo, Brazil. It was full of tons of “cool and together” people. If we could get and maintain a crowd in that genre we knew it was on “the mark”. It is so rewarding to see men be touched and moved in the way we hope. It is so edifying to see people respond to a creative expression that is not the modern genre where madness is “the mark” and “old fashioned” morality is frowned upon or despised as out dated and offensive.
Speaking of “underground”… there is nothing like being on the tenth floor of a high rise, sound asleep at 4 AM, when an earthquake hits. I didn’t sleep all night and finally fell into one of those really deep sleeps. It was as if someone was violently shaking me. It was no little thing. It scared me. We put on our clothes on got ready to evacuate. Then were told it was “no big deal”. Ya. Right. So neither is my LIFE, right dude?
The epicenter was 150 miles south of where we are and registered as a 6.2 on the richter scale. Then that night Abraham was out jogging on a path next to the ocean. The police stopped him and told him he had to climb the stairs up the Tsunami walls because another earthquake hit and they feared a tsunami. This one was 7.2~ “NO BIG DEAL”? Tell that to all the people whose houses convey a BIG deal.
Come to find out that there were forty earthquakes in Peru alone since January. Yesterday there was six of them in the northern district. The reporter said “Just be careful and stay ready. We all know this is an earthquake zone”. Earthquake zone?! All the time? So like what does one buy or do to prepare to live in a “earthquake zone”?
In Michigan a shovel went hand in hand with “winter season”. Makes sense. But “EARTHQUAKES” ?! Maybe foam cushions and a lot of duct tape? It looks like over the next couple of weeks we will be heading into the region of the world that has the most earthquakes of any place else on earth. We are thinking that we have to get rid of our trailer because the mountainous terrain is so extreme.
Such a blessing yesterday. All eight of us drove to the largest prison way out in this desert town. Nothing but devastation all around. It is rated for 2500 men. It has 10,000 prisoners! So we just walk up to the main entrance and ask them if we can perform for the men. We tell them what we do. They call one guy who calls another guy etc. Next thing we know we are sitting in the office of the head commander. This guy was the most warm and cordial man we have met in this country and he asked us so many unique questions. We are waiting to hear if we were approved.
I wish you all could see and hear this hip hop dance and song that David wrote. Years ago I could never have imagined such a thing could be so beautiful in it’s power to touch the masses. Jesus is SO much bigger than our little carnal minds and boring religious ways. It’s one thing to know this in theory. It’s quite another to experience this. It is also very humbling.