Shoes

They take off their shoes to play
And it doesn’t seem that it will rain today
And there’s no food on their plate
But if you listen closely you can hear them say

God is so good
He’s been more to me than anyone could
God is so good
He means more to me than anything
So much more than this world could ever bring
His love is more than the shoes – on my feet

I have never known hunger
And I’m not familiar with death
And I don’t know just what I’d do
If $2 dollars could have saved my daughter from death

Thoughts like this can make us sad
Is that all the effect that they should have?
While we argue about where to eat
Starving children will die, but somehow parents will sing

God is so good
He’s been more to me than anyone could
God is so good
He means more to me than anything
So much more than this world could ever bring
His love is more than the shoes – on my feet

Have you ever known hunger?

They take off their shoes to play
And it doesn’t seem that it will rain today
And there’s no food on their plate
But if you listen closely you can hear them say

Chorus, or God is so good in other languages
Or Africans, Filipinos, Hispanics and Indians singing it…

We sit on our couch and watch our plasma TV
Our emotional shows are about obesity
But as their children die you still hear them sing

Stories

12 hours she works
In a factory
Away from her kids
But at least they’ll eat
That’s what she says to me

All for a dollar
They call a day’s wage
But she misses her kids
Who are underweight?
Even though they ate

And she doesn’t know
How long she can last
Work takes a toll,
Kids are growing fast
All she wanted was for her kids to eat
This is Alicia’s story…

The shame she felt
From digging through trash
Opened a door
For her to dance
Men liked that

5 dollars could be a very good day
But she could make 5 more
If she goes all the way
On public display

And she doesn’t know
How long she can last
Ten years since 12 have gone so fast
And the cuts on her wrist
Show she never escaped the shame
This is Maricel’s story…

HOW LONG MUST WE WAIT
TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING

At 8 years old
She was sold as a slave
Her parent’s response
To their poverty – poverty

Abusive years
Some spent in chains
Pregnancies
And children to raise
Coupled with shame

She’d have loved to escape this reality
The only release she found was to sing
But the ears of men,
They heard the same beat
As the men of her past,
Would history repeat?
Till her song reached the heart
Of a foreign man
Who swore to God
To take her hand
The challenges faced were intimidating
But God shook the earth to show his glory
As I look in the eyes of my son today
I see that Justice isn’t just clichÈ
God hears the cry of slaves who say help me
This is my Mom’s story…

Anything

I can’t speak your language
But can you read my mind
There’s so much I could tell you
I guess now’s not the time

It’s not that I don’t want you to have anything
I don’t have anything to give
The overwhelming needs around me
Will empty my pocket

But if I could do anything
If I could do anything

I’d build you a house
I’d buy you good food
I’d put you in school
I’d buy you brand new shoes
I’d get you all the things
You ever wanted and more

The need paralyzes me
I want to close my eyes
I want to pretend that you’re happy
Just because you smile

All my solutions require money
Can money save a life?
What has money done to me,
That I can’t even cry?

But if I could do anything
If I could do anything

I’d build you a house
I’d buy you good food
I’d put you in school
I’d buy you brand new shoes
I’d get you all the things
You ever wanted and more
All the things I ever wanted and more…

Musical Solo of some sort…

So God, what could you be thinking?
To see this all the time
Do you close eyes & close your ears
To the begging mother’s cry

Does the stench of urine and feces,
Make you wanna lodge at the Hilton tonight?
Does the crowded, mob-like city
Make you feel like staying inside?

Do you ever want it to go away?
Why don’t you make it go away?
Please make it go away?
Please make it go away?
How can I do anything to make it go away?
What do you want me to do to make it go away?
I’ll give my life to make it go away!
I’ll give my life to make it go away!

We’re gonna build you a house
We’re gonna grow you some food
Let’s go to school
Here, take my shoes

Meet my kids
They’re your siblings too
I’ll be your Dad
My Wife can be a Mom to you

I have all the things you ever needed and more
You are everything we’ve ever needed and more
He is everything we’ve ever needed and more

Recognize

In the basement of my mind
I’m struggling to find
a way to speak the words that
Burned a whole into my conscience

The burden of sight
A vision for right
when wrong is so accepted
Justice finds his home in prison

Recognize, recognize
The face of God in slanted eyes
Darker skin and foreign smiles

Recognize, recognize
The value of a human life
Is priceless even when it’s not white

A sacrifice of lies
Vanity disguised
In acts of charity
Comfortable generosity

An excuse for light
It’s easy to hide
Behind familial duty
Self-preservation becomes priority

Recognize, recognize
The face of God in slanted eyes
Darker skin and foreign smiles

Recognize, recognize
The value of a human life
Is priceless even when it’s not white

What you do to the least of these
Is what you do to me
What you do to me
Feeding the hungry
Quenching the thirsty
It’s what you do to me
Clothing the naked
Caring for the diseased
It’s what you do to me
Educating the poor man
Raising the orphan
It’s what you do to me

Your attendance twice a week
Your tithes and your offerings
Is vanity – not for me!

The worship you’re leading
The sermons you’re preaching
Is just noise to me
You can keep your CD’s

The building you’re making
The money you’re saving
In my name, causes me so much shame

None of it matters
It just doesn’t matter
If my oppressed people starve and die
I’m the bread of life!

Recognize, recognize
The face of God in slanted eyes
Darker skin and foreign smiles

Recognize, recognize
The value of a human life
Is priceless even when it’s not white

Living Days

Living days like you don’t know He’s there
Conversations aren’t getting you nowhere
You can say what you want
But your actions speak louder than words

Carrying on like no one else yeah
Show your smile man you don’t need no help
Look alive on the outside
But you’re really dead

Heard you talking about the worlds situation
And how we live in a hypocrite nation
And all who ignore this
Are blind to sin

You say all this but you don’t believe you
Your mouth speaks but your actions speak too
You can pretend but you can’t hide yourself

Do you see yourself in him?
Do you find this could be you?

Listen up I’m a tell you a story
About a man who was looking for glory
Inside the church – prayed next to a lowly man
He said,
“Thank you Lord that I’m not like this man”
Then he boasted and raised up his hands
So holy, so holy – he thought

Then the other man pounded his chest
Said,
“I’m a sinful man I don’t deserve to be blessed.
Lord, please forgive me for I cannot?”

Now which one of these two?
Do you think spoke the truth?
Who would God justify?
And who would He correct?

Do you see yourself in them?
Do you find these could be you?
How can we be what Jesus wants us to be?
How can we live out the truth?

Talk is cheap, often words come easy
Especially as a ‘professional’ in ministry
It’s so impossible to see yourself

The answer is found in community
Combined with truth and vulnerability
To be used by God we’ve got to humble ourselves
We need help
Jesus chose 12

God humbled himself
Living days like you don’t know He’s there
Conversations aren’t getting you nowhere
You can say what you want
But your actions speak louder than words

Feel It (Purple Haze)

On the other side of the ocean
People forgotten in commotion
Forged underneath a blood red sky

You’ve seen this world in pictures
Fly covered, starving children
Left to believe that this is life

Wearing the trash they live in
Eating the scraps they’re given
Still not enough to survive

Diseased and malnutrition
False hope in the west’s religion
This is enough to make God cry

From a distance
You can’t feel it
You can choose
Just to close your eyes

When you’re in it
You can taste it
You got no choice
But to give your life

Your home bombed; can you imagine?
Sister raped; how can this happen?
And now there’s talk of genocide

Societies all in a panic
A mother cries from images too graphic
Don’t think you know what this is like
(And you thank God it’s not your life)

Go ahead and change the channel
Watch that show where weight loss is a battle
So sad they had too many calories

Send a check support a child
You’ve done your part now you can smile
Get back to your American Dreaming…

From a distance
You can’t feel it
You can choose
Just to close your eyes

When you’re in it
You can taste it
You’ve got no choice
Just to give your life

Oh say can you see
A world without poverty
Where the widow can eat
And the orphan can dream
Where the slave is set free
The oppressed find liberty
Unemployed are military
And the farmer rewrites history

From a distance
You can’t feel it
You can choose
Just to close your eyes

When you’re in it
You can taste it
You got no choice
But to give your life

Everyone Wants to Be Loved

A simple photograph
Can bring all the feelings rushing back
I’m getting emotional
Time has flown by I’m growing old

Colliding with corporate values I’m
Sick of American holidays
Working 9 to 5
At a chance to improve my security

Remember the sun as it cut the sky
Remember the orphaned children’s cry
Remember that picture you took with Gene
Remember what it means

Everyone wants to be loved
Everyone wants an invading hug
Everyone wants to be touched by God

Everyone wants to get high
Everyone wants to laugh till they cry
Everyone wants to be loved by God

I’ve settled down again
Something I promised I’d never do
I’m looking more like my friends
I’m not sure I ever wanted to
Work on weekends and holidays
Put in 70 hours for a pay raise
With the extra money I made
See how it does on the stock exchange

Remember the children who couldn’t eat
Remember the widow’s barefoot feet
Remember the burden you felt inside
Remember how you came alive!

You say you love and you care
But you don’t want to live there

India wants to be loved
Iraq it wants an invading hug
The Philippines wants to be touched by God

Jamaica wants to get high
Somalia wants to laugh till they cry
Everyone wants to be loved by God

Words That Liberate

Facing backwards on a trampoline
Falling from a sky of anxiety
Learning up is down and down is free
And I’m losing my Christianity

Ceremony goodbye
Temple goodbye
No compromise

Speak through the fire
I am not afraid
Burn on my heart
Words that liberate
Words that liberate

Telling God how He’s supposed to be
Presupposition about his deity
Preaching God’s concern is his sovereignty
Be offended at this; God’s in love with me…

Dogma’s goodbye
Orthodoxy goodbye
No compromise

Speak through the fire
I am not afraid
Burn on my heart
Words that liberate
Words that liberate

This is how I see Christianity
It looks like a calf made up of vain philosophy
All this nonsense about God’s passion for himself and his God-centered being
You bind God to His laws for men
But God He is Free – to love me!

Speak through the fire
I am not afraid
Burn on my heart
Words that liberate
Words that liberate

I am the LORD your God
Your Liberator
I am all you need
No more anxiety
I will be what I will be
I’ve come to set you free (I set the oppressed free!)

Words that liberate
Words that liberate

The Anthem

This is the anthem for the one’s who want to save a life
A call to arms for the one’s who want to fight
On behalf of the one’s whom the world forgot
Love’s our bullet; pull the trigger, here’s our shot! BOOM

First target is to take out selfishness
Enough’s enough and we’ve got plenty of it
Its time to give to the one’s who can’t pay us back
Money’s fake, let’s educate – holla back! HEY

Sing this song, sing, sing it, yeah… (x4)

We’re not concerned with the clout that comes from men
Accreditation, commendations to blend in
To be accepted in this world used to be condemned
Master card and common sense now accepted

Sing this song, sing, sing it, yeah… (x4)

A voice from the wild is crying come
It’s time to manifest the Kingdom
So get ready for persecution

Be blessed when:
They talk about you
Lie about you
Slander you
Mach you
Exclude you
Despise you
Hate you
Judge you and beat you too!

The Spirit is upon me
To preach to Somali,
To preach to da Pinoy
To preach to da Commi,
Red man, Black man, woman, everyman
Take a stand in foreign land
Pharaoh’s got an antonym
The cries of the people
Ignored by the steeple
A shepherd’s staff in my hand
lead ‘em to the promise land
The immigrant and orphan
Widow and poor man
Sex slave and destitute
Israel’s coming for you
God’s people let ‘em go
Here comes the power show
In weakness we’ll bring this
With love guns defeat this
I can’t help but preach this
This is what Jesus teaches
The Kingdom is near us
You don’t have to fear us
I say what I hear
And I hear what I he says
And I live out these words
With a cross my defense
The truth is alive and he’s breathing in me
Giving face to the poor
It’s the Anthem – Sing!