David Crowder and Rumi

David Crowder Band has recorded some terrific music over the past few years. A friend of mine was teaching pre-teens a Christian Dance routine and I suggested their song "Church Music" as a form of worship.

This summer I decided to get a book from the library of poetry by a famous poet named Rumi. Born in 1201 in Balkg, Afghanistan until his family emigrated to Konya, Turkey. He was a poet of Islamic mysticism, a smaller group  of Sufism, known as Mevlevi Order. "It became famous for the sacred dance that was its central practice."

I vaguely remembered some talk during my childhood about the Swirling Dervishes? It turns out their actual name is 'Whirling Dervishes, darvish being the Persian word for "poor", which, when applied to members of Sufi Orders, took on the connotation of "poor in spirit" or humility.'

WAIT A MINUTE! Aren't Christians called to be poor in spirit and humble? The parallels draw me to read and learn more. For now, compare what Rumi wrote and how Crowder expressed it.

Rumi wrote:

"Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance, in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free."

Crowder wrote:

"Dance, if you're wounded,
Dance, if you're torn in two.
Dance, broken open.
Dance, with nothing to lose.
Oh, perfectly free.
Oh, dance if you wanna be."

Imagine my surprise when I asked YouTube if they had any videos of the Dervishes and the one below popped up. So please watch the following two video clips and draw your own conclusions.