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There is this place that I go when the music peaks
Where many have entered and few wish to leave
A place where cares fall behind the lids of my eyes
And the noise in the room is out of focus but beautiful
There is a door that opens to a world of reprieve
With a smile and a pardon and a moment to be free
In this place I’m given wings to soar over death
And a grace to love until there’s nothing left
My escape to this place is often shortly lived
But my return is life with a purpose for breath
I was made for this world where there is strength for the weak
And I was born to live forever where the music peaks
Changed and rearranged by things that I behold
Sifted then lifted and burned to purest gold
So collectively affected by the popular and old
On strings like puppet things only doing what I’m told
Like me all see that we were free but now are sold
To the system are we slaves losing wisdom growing cold
Change us now.
‘Amender of men’ be so bold
As to stir the many sleepers and arouse the blinded fold
To see the face we traded for comfort and for gold
And upon it lay our eyes till we become what we behold
You sing and you dance as though you’ve only one chance
But the music ended long ago
And there’s this thing in your smile that I struggle to place
As if you move to a rhythm unknown
You toss me a glance that says come now and dance
I look around to make sure it was me
But I’m just stalling because I know if I stand
I’ll have to be the man that You see
The problem here is you’re the only one dancing
And everyone else has taken a seat
And while they look at You now I know if I come
Who knows the man that they’ll see
You turn and keep dancing but your thoughts are on me
And mine are a mess for the night
You’ve invaded my world with one single look
And if I sit here I know that I’ll die
My glass is now empty but I still hold it firm
Like the limb on the edge of this cliff
I close my eyes. I put my glass to the table
And leave my seat to the fear that is left
The heads in the room with a synchronized turn
Sling stares like their killing a foe
But I take every hit like a slap on the wrist
For your eyes have silenced the blows
There is nothing on earth quite as great as the way
You look past the outside of me
Through the fear & the failure, the pride & the pain
To the man that you’ve always seen
its a rainy night.
traffic lights smear through the pavement
making it simple to weep
without wandering eyes
And hard to sleep
Because tomorrow is dry
The wet has a way
of grounding
The scattered and drifting thoughts
Of sounding the bell
for the herd to punch the clock
Like a settling of dust
On the floor of the brain
retreating within
Justified by the rain
Why do the storms
Make it okay to stop
the sunshine glorify
Racing the clock
Give me a rainy night
Before a thousand sunny days
That I may come alive
This heart of simple ways
I’ll believe it when I see it
But if I see it will I need it
Or will it all just be a waste
A man so geared to dream
Believing life’s not what it seems
Wanting to swallow not just taste
Am I so blind to ask the time
As if the time was ever mine
And give false hope to my control
Or does the schedule that I keep
Look at me with tongue and cheek
As if to say “it’s cute you know?”
Who am I in light of Him
And what is He if life is me
But a god within my reach
And could I be so bold to say
It’s merely chance that I was made
And still find hope enough to breathe
I am more than filling space
Meant for more than a carrot chase
I am spirit wrapped in flesh
And to think that He is closed
Within the walls of what I know
Is purely madness nothing less
Was I ever really strong enough
Or silver tongued to the turning of heads
Have I ever made them move an inch
Or awakened the sinful dead
Have angels ever wished they were me
With arms instead of wings
Trading gray hair for their halo’s
And a song they must fight to sing
You avow me as an only child
And fight hell for who I’ll be
Looking as though you never doubt
That I’m precisely what You see
How did I get to this place in Your heart
Where kings have never tread
Where dreams I thought were torn apart
Were only growing in Your head
How did I come to the front of your thoughts
While giving in so often to mine
It’s like nothing I could possibly to know
And yet all I was meant to find
You are over the top in all that You are
Insanely right in all that You do
Your bottomless love like counting the stars
As endless to me as the depths of You
For a sec I saw
my speck of a self
Seemingly sick
but somehow well
Internally bleeding
from a seed of greed
With a need to believe
I was conceived as free
My purpose the point
to playing the part
Though purple this face
in placing my heart
Looking for love
in the lust of this life
Longing to belong
to a loving wife
Who will dig for treasure
in the depths of my sea
And find my pleasures
never the measure of me
I’ve followed and led,
swallowed and bled
Hollowed some places
and left them for dead
I’ve dreamed in the night,
screamed in the day
Foreseen a plight
and careened anyway
It is by hope I know
that I cope and I grow
And rise from below
by the grace that He shows
Outrageous, contagious
and in stages He loves
Courageously raging
with a passion for us
But a breath to the death
what I do is what is left
With my best to the test
He’ll attest to the rest
What if pain is actually the purest form of grace,
Life in the birthing process,
Façade giving way to honesty in a trail of death
What if strength is but a series of shattered things,
Fortified by falling,
Flawed but priceless in the eyes of a perfect God
What if our two feet are not meant to make us stand
Or to stabilize this feeble man,
But rather give way to the arms of their creator
What if God’s mercies become clearest in our suffering,
In those times we doubt His love.
When we’re washed in tears, born through pain and close to giving up
There’s something about Ella on a rainy day
A mug of coffee without a place to go
“You could be happy” on 40 at dusk
With Sufjan in the cue on a mountain road
I love Manhattan with my headphones in
Where the people are actors in a video
The back porch of The Hollow with Bruiser & Ben
A beer, a bible and how life turns slow
I love the Cape Fear beneath an overcast sky
And jumping the chains to sit by the edge
McMillan & Mathis like blue with a smile
Stuck in my brain & clearing my head
I love bacon, eggs & grits for dinner
It makes me think of growing up
And all that momma did for her boys
In giving her life to show us love
I love the Fall because it’s close to December
And Christmas because God knows why
There’s a chill in the air & a smile on my face
And a beautiful silent night
I love the sun on the trees around 5 o’clock
And how life looks like a dream
When all become stunning and nothing matters
And my fears fall in between
I love the moment after I’ve given it all
And I am drained yet content with purpose
When life becomes more than just another day
And I become more than this
Show me a picture of something worth fighting for
a glimpse of passion that can move this heart.
Give me a dream that doesn’t end on the rocks
or even better, one that never ends.
You say to sing for you and I sing
until my throat is sore do I sing.
You say to dance but my legs ache
yet I dance again for your sake.
Am I here for nothing more than your entertainment
a pawn equipped only for the lesser of battles?
Am I fated to know love but only so far
and award the pain that has rattled this heart?
I could scream at you Lord
but I want to kiss you instead
you allow me to fall and yet lift up my head
you want me dead, of this I am sure
for to die in You is to ever endure.
It all sounds right when it’s read by the spirit.
It reminds me I am not here for my own.
But its the flesh in me that’ll be damned if I hear it
its the flesh telling me that I’m pitifully alone.
I am growing weary, my purpose becoming clear
it is for one thing I live and that the moment you are here.
Though ever so brief, it remains undying
when this calloused heart is left broken and crying.
Lord lengthen these moments till I find myself more
in this place that I crave and Who’s presence I adore.
