Here I Am

Here I Am

You wouldn't know me
no, this disease I carry
Leaves me cold
Leaves me often without feeling
And I'm exiled
Live apart from all my people
unclean
Mind is sharp, but body feeble
Yeah, you wouldn't know me.

Yet here I am
Calling out to this man
Who's been known, through all the land
Sir, Heal me if you can
Oh heal me if you can.

You wouldn't recognize me
Sin's marks left me disfigured
So broken I can no longer
Recognize this image in the mirror
and now just look
He touched me and I was healed
seen and restored
I am exiled no more
Yeah, you wouldn't recognize me.

Yet here I am,
I was broken, needed healing
Bound by chains no one was seeing
He came and gave me breath
and now my head is reeling
Tell me who is this man
Oh who is this man

I bet you wouldn't see me
Just another face in the crowd
coming to watch
the fate of this prophet and healer
what a turn, not sure i should even be here
Different
I shouldn't be swept up in this mob
Yeah, you couldn't pick me out of this crowd

Yet here I am
the crowd around me is screaming
and I can feel my lips
Betraying the man that is bleeding
Sir, what have I done
Oh God, forgive me what have I done.

Vows

Darling, what did you mean 
when you said for better or for worse
How could you know at the time 

the weight of those five words 

How the lowest of lows and the highest of highs

Would pass before our eyes

How they’d fall on the good and on the bad

Still here we are here, hand in hand

And for as long as we both shall live

I’ll have a hold on you, like the gift it is

And while we are far from perfect 

This Love is surely worth it…

and I will love and cherish you,

‘Til death do us part

Oh til death do us part

Baby what did you mean

When you said In sickness and in health

Did you dream that this would be 

The cards that we’d be dealt

It seems we’ve walked our way across

Little bits of heaven and little bits of hell

Have we passed the worst of it

I guess Only time will tell

And for as long as we both shall live

I’ll have a hold on you, like the gift it is

And while we are far from perfect 

This Love is surely worth it…

and I will love and cherish you,

‘Til death do us part

Oh til death do us part

Honey, what did you mean

When you said for richer or for poor

Did you know the depths it’d take

To shepherd what we have and more

Little moments pretending to hold

the strings of blessings purse

Still learning to grasp loosely what we never really own

But for as long as we both shall live

I’ll have a hold on you, like the gift it is

And while we are far from perfect 

This Love is surely worth it…

and I will love and cherish you,

‘Til death do us part

Oh til death do us part

Yeah, For just as long as we both shall live

I’ll have an hold you - like the gift it is.

And while neither of us is perfect

This love he gives makes it all worth it

And I’ll love you like he does and cherish you

Till death do us part…

Oh oh, till death do us part

To have and to hold

For richer of poorer

To Love and cherish

Till death do us part

The Back Side of the Dawn

 

The Back Side of the Dawn

What do you do when you can’t just let it go

When it feels like you may have reached further

than the space you thought you had to grow

When the cut’s so deep that scar will always show

Hold on, oh Hold on

On the edge of the world and your eyes are filled with dust

Can’t even cry, those tears just plumb gave up. 

Headed into the dusk knowing the night will come on strong

Sometimes its the simple things that seem to go so wrong

But the darkness of the eclipse can’t hold forever

So if your grip is slipping and you can barely keep it together

Hold on, oh hold on 

It’s on the back side of the dawn

Where suffering is finished

On the back side of the dawn

Where sin will finally perish

The grime that festered in the dark

the light will wash away

On the back side of the dawn

What do you do when twilights shadow casts so long,

 it can get so cold and the hills can feel so tall

And your lungs ache, it’s a wonder you can breath at all,

Suffocating at the speed of free fall,

It’s seems the sun’s the only thing that won’t break

And you wonder how life will go on,

Hold on, oh hold on.

When it seems the deep black of midnight 

threatens everything you know

And the battle isn’t going how you thought it would go

When every piece of who you are’s been battered,

When violence and the hurting make you feel this desperate hour

When the precipice you’re on keeps hope just out of view

And just holding still takes every remaining bit of power

waiting for the sun to make things new

Hold on, oh hold on

On the back side of the dawn

Where suffering is finished

On the back side of the dawn

Where sin will finally perish

The grime that festered in the dark

the light will wash away

On the back side of the dawn

The horizon shows the signs

Of the light that’s soon to come

No doubt there’s some hard things

That leave us longing for hope

the savior won’t be deterred

When the light over the clouds comes shining through

And evil at last is conquered

On the back side of the dawn

On the back side of the dawn

Where suffering is finished

On the back side of the dawn

Where sin will finally perish

The grime that festered in the dark

the light will wash away

On the back side of the dawn

So hold on, oh hold on

The light will vanquish the shadows

On the back side of the dawn

Trinkets in the Planter

 Trinkets in the Planter

I stumbled across some old plastic army soldier

His better days are over

But his camouflage has never been outdone

Out here in the yard, under all these leaves and bark

It’s a shame his time’s long past 

When somebody imagines his rank and class

Now He’s just a trinket in the planter

Someday you may stumble on him,

Or one of the many just like this.

Faded memories once loved well,

Now just stories one might tell,

Just trinkets in the planter

That’s not to say they’ve been forgotten

No sometimes even now,

They’ll be a long lost bit of nostalgia

A feeling that might catch ya

And leave you longing for home

Found a Luigi figure lying there in the mud

At least most of him anyway

At some point he must have broke,

From an old keychain

A valued part of life, for such a short time

A treasure all the same

In so many ways

Some day someone might dig him up

And wonder ‘bout the hell he went through

And never know just what

He might of meant to you.

A time when he was more

Than just a trinket in the planter

That’s not to say he’s been forgotten

Though I suppose from day to day that may be true

He’s still a precious memory, a piece of who you came to be

A piece who’s roots run deep into your history

So stranger when you find them,

Know that their more than simple trash

There’s a story to each one

Slivers and pieces like artifacts, little gems of the past

To these trinkets in the planter.

Strangers

Strangers 

You ask me who I am
Some days I'm not sure myself
I can tell you who I want to be
but then act like someone else
They say don't talk to strangers
but that's just who I see
what if the stranger in question
is me?

I'm looking at a stranger
across from me in that glass
there's just so many questions
I'd like for him to ask
but every pending question
is like an arrow to the heart
asking why so great a chasm
between the call and where you are

There's lines where there wasn't
and on the whole there's more grey
time it seems, hasn't gone unpaid
and it's clear what was it's wage
the image in the mirror
may have it's comments to make
and while its image says what I look like
it lies about who I am

truth is you're looking at a stranger
an alien and traveller
a citizen away from home
an ambassador from a foreign place
bearing the image of my king
and the message of his grace

so when you see him live and present in the flesh

I don't want you to be looking at a stranger
a companion you never really knew
a figure out of focus, kept just out of view
when the sun fades into sunset
and we stare long into the night
amongst every joy and failure 
I want to see you by my side.

Mixed Emotions

 Mixed Emotions

I suppose goodbyes shouldn’t always have to be sad

So I’m not sure why it always seems go down like that

Emotions are wrecked on this side of heaven they say

But sometimes a sunset is just a door to the sunrise on a new day

Yet there always things you’d rather not leave behind

When we’ve said all the words we can say

When parting is the last graceful step left in the way

When you’ve prayed all the prayers you can pray

Sometimes there’s nothing left but goodbye 

Not sure what we would have done different here, was this how we expected things to go?

The waves of opportunity come rolling in

And mixed emotions get shaken up the in undertow

But there so many sights out there to see, 

Climbing the next mountain may demand coming down from the one you’re on.  

When the parties are over and the last piece of confetti has hit the floor

When the keys are surrendered and you’ve locked all the doors

When your fond memories are securely set into place

And it’s time to get this thing under way

Sometimes there’s nothing left but goodbye

Someday on an outbound trip, 

we’ll leave this whole thing behind, 

And the angels will sing from their place in the sky, 

the things we did in the past

Will be tested with fire 

to see if they last

Friend when I catch your eye

Perhaps then it wont be just for goodbye

 

Miles out of Eden

 Miles out of Eden

Male voice (Adam):

I’m supposed to feel wiser, 

instead I sense deep loss, 

I think wouldn’t have eaten 

had I considered the cost.  

That serpent was crafty, 

and the fruit looked so good

Man, it’s all crystal clear now how much I misunderstood 

Looking over my shoulder at that sword of flame

Its clear that I can no longer stay

I can’t believe that I hurt you this way

I’m miles out of Eden

and headed the wrong way

There’s no rest for the trouble

I’ve found today.  the higher the mountain, 

the greater the fall

It’s a miracle you still love me at all

Female voice (Eve):

It all seemed so innocent, at least at first

In just one blink of an eye reality set in

The uneasy distance of hiding hurt 

But the taste of rebellion is worse

Now here we are on the wrong side looking in

What a mistake this has been

From the cool of the garden garden into this desert heat.  And yet even in exile we know for our lord this isn’t defeat. 

We’re miles out of Eden 

And headed away

From all that we knew in the cool of the shade

But he’s made us a promise

So we know one day

The serpent who tricked us will

Be made to pay

After thousands of years and millions of miles

We’re still miles from Eden and 

headed due south

Yeah, we don’t have much trouble 

Finding our way down.

Gotta see a man who has the keys

that can let us back in

Even as the words of our savior sit recorded in red

On that leather bound manual next to the bed

The pages cast light on the savior within

The one who’s crushed that crafty serpent’s head

It’s the faith to let him lead you and take you by the hand

Miles again down the narrow path,

Where the gates of Eden are open again.