‘Mourning into Dancing’ is one of the repeated phrases of Reuben Morgan’s 1998 song “This Is How We Overcome”. It’s a message that’s packed with meaning. We know it had meaning for King David in Israel - he’s the author, who wrote because he’d felt shame, been punished, repented, and felt forgiveness. Is it physical, emotional, or spiritual trouble that has me snagged today? There’s a way through the dark tunnel, Reuben says with this composition.
Rueben Morgan is the worship pastor at the Hillsong church in Sydney, Australia. Dispensing grace, as Jesus Christ’s bride, that’s the mission of any Christ-centered body. It’s a process that David did not know as we know it today, but he experienced the transformation. The Hillsong church’s work has no doubt touched many hurting people, with various ministries to reach people in need. Maybe some of them arrived in their condition as David and his nation did, by their own doing. David’s sin was pride, manifested in counting his army (1 Chronicles 21). Oh, he was warned, as many of us are today, that calamity ensues when we screw up, and that we deserve whatever happens. If I’m in tune with my conscience-spirit, I repent eventually. Was Reuben Morgan struggling similarly, and coming up the other side of a deep valley – a mourning into dancing, as David remembered in Psalm 30:11? Maybe he was witness to such an episode, not uncommon when you’re on the front line at a large church? Maybe he’d also seen something that resembled what David did, building an altar to honor God and so recognize His lordship and the expectation of His provision of grace.
The song’s words are few, inviting me to focus on one thing – the reason for my deliverance. ‘This is how we overcome’, but what’s ‘this’ ? If I feel overwhelmed in my life rather than ‘overcome’-ing at times, I could be asking myself how much I really believe what crosses my lips in praise as I sing Reuben Morgan’s song. How’s my mourning turned upside down? Perhaps the clue is in the title of the album on which “This Is How We Overcome” appears. “By Your Side” is the name the Hillsong church’s praise ministry gave the album, with “This Is How We Overcome” the final track on the recording. Am I with God, or against Him? If I’m ‘by His side’, as the album theme suggests, I can count on Him, here and in the hereafter. God is ‘this’ for me. The song invites me to address Him directly – ‘Your Grace…your light…your hand…your praise’. I need to stick with Him no matter what.
The following websites provide some biography on Rueben Morgan, the Hillsong church where he serves as worship pastor, and the album on which the song “This Is How We Overcome” appears:
http://myhillsong.com/need-help
http://www.fivelines.com/newindex.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Morgan
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