He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

— Revelation 22:1

I saw a mother and her daughter 
each on different phones
When they collided in their cars 
they each broke different bones
and they heard different tones

I asked my brother why he 
fought her when she was so mad
He said he just did not believe 
he was the things she said
And I know his was the blood we shed

So tell me about the revolution
How we come around
We start again before 
we even touch the ground 

In the revolution
How we come again
A new beginning follows
every bitter end

You told me it was true
I would have another chance with you

In the mirror
a reflection that I recognize
I know that hair
I know that skin 
I know those empty eyes
A face I’ve so despised 

I know my heart
I know my soul
I know what I can do
I know that I could never 
make it here without you
And I know I’m without you

I’m washed away without you
I don’t know where I am
I don’t know how I got here
(without you)

There on the mountains is
a man with mercy in his eyes
He leads an army to the River 
and the Tree of Life
He fills the world with light

I wanna tell you everything
I can’t tell you anything
You know that I would
if I could

I wanna take you everywhere
I can’t take you anywhere
You know that I would
if I could

So what’s the matter?
What’s the difference?
What’s it take to notice
To know this
I’ve made the same mistakes

An empty gesture
without any motion
Taking you nowhere fast
Leaving you back
where you started from

He loved you when
you needed it most
Chased away all
your ghosts
Giving you life in death

I strapped that old gun to the side of my hip 
I could feel the cold steel on my fingertips 
And I’m gone
All the way gone
I ain’t got no money to speak of
But I’d kiss it away if I did anyway, and I’m gone

Just as the weather had started to shift
She said together was not how we fit
So I’m gone
All the way gone
Ain’t nobody here wanna get with
Some dirty old redneck with a rap sheet and tattoos, I’m gone

Oh, I don’t know if I’ll ever go home
I don’t know if I’ll ever go home (X2)

Well I passed this town on the way in to drift
My past come around now it’s high time I split 
So I’m gone
All the way gone
I’ll stay if they tell me to stay here
I’ll go if they leave me alone
Call this home or I’m gone

Sign on the window says “open at ten”
I’m hungry at seven, I’ve got to come in
Or I’m gone
All the way gone 
I’m wearing in the clothes of my brother 
We carried the rose of my mother 
I love her, I’m gone

He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!”

— John 19:26-27

He always told you
He would be coming back for you
And when he told you why he left 
He always told you the truth
He never meant to lead you astray
It just turned out that way

And how they found you
Unsettled in your house alone
You never made it to the point
Where you made your house into a home
You never meant to leave things undone
It just turned out that way 

One thing we really ought to do
When we get to live again
We all should start out making nothing
And then make lots of friends
And if we still don’t get a damn thing out of life
It just turned out that way 

I’m already gone
I’m on my way
My path is set in stone
Got nothing left to say
I’m already gone
It just turned out that way

---

I know he’s coming back. He promised me. When he comes back, it’s going to be like joy you’ve never seen – for everyone.

This song is about how Jesus from the Bible came to me when my life was a mess, and how I also went to him when all his other friends abandoned him. I won’t turn away from him if no one cares, believes me, or has any interest hearing this. Me and Jesus Christ are real best friends. Everybody else is nice, but nobody can meet my needs the way that Jesus does.

We each experienced this as “I am a man in real trouble. The Holy Spirit just showed up to save me from this horrible demise.”

I hope somebody takes the time to realize this isn’t just a song. It is my real story. The only one I care about preserving.

Someone said, “Oh, he’s such an artist.” Sure. But this is real too. Not just a song. Both of us use these exact same lyrics to share what we each went through in our two separate lives. That’s wild, right?

Enjoy!

---

LYRICS

You can go to the garden alone. Meet him out there away from the rose. You can tell him your thoughts about women and men. Hear him laugh as he tells you the truth, and then you can go to the garden alone. You will never come back on your own

Well, they led me to the garden alone. They said this is the garden you own. All the love there inside is the love you deserve. All the people inside are the ones you will serve. It was the garden of sorrow and woe. There was no love inside there to know.

I fell asleep in the garden alone
I awoke to find love in my home 

So I weeded my garden alone. Now I’m staying; oh, why should I go? If they tell me this is love, who am I to say no? I will stay for this love. It’s the love that I know. I won’t turn from the love of my soul. I will not leave love here all alone.

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

— 1 Corinthians 3:8

This song is a testimony about the free gift of salvation we have through Jesus Christ our Lord, and how that gift was delivered to me through the hand of his faithful servant, my worship leader.

I am forever changed because of her faithfulness to God. I just can’t stop testifying to this.

This faithful witness saved my soul and gave me hope when my life was a sure disaster. So of course I’m going to sing about it! Why wouldn’t I?

This is on the up and up. I testify to Jesus Christ, who is exalted over everything. I also honor who he chose to preach the gospel to me.

Far out on the road, just a man with no sense of my home 
Then she calls, “come over”
The thought of it is giving me life again 

I needed someone to forgive me
She needed someone she could forgive 
So Pasadena sure gives me a reason to live 

When I didn’t know I could go back and live my life over again 
She let me atone, so now I’m living this one for my love

Mama, when I needed you, you raised me up, made me like new
My father said, you know my love always tells you the truth  

This was the first post I ever made to 221211.org. God gave me this song back then as a stone marker, to remember how we first started meeting face to face on a regular basis.

I hope everyone will experience God’s presence for themselves, because he has shown me that truly everyone is already held secure in his eternal love, and anyone can do this.

I also hope my songs and stories free a lot of people from their own unnecessary sense of guilt, and from the burdens placed upon them by people who don’t know God really loves us very much and he exists.

Go check out that website, and believe it. It’s the truth.

Early in the morning
I go out to meet the Lord

I go to hear the voice of heaven
The song is like a bird

I could take you to the place
He always comes around for me

Light of life, now shine on me
I’m alive, my life flies free

Even in the darkest valley of the shadow
When I feel weak or lost
He don’t turn his back on us
He lives in our house with us
He’s like the man in my shadow

Light of life, now shine on me
I’m alive, my life flies free

I met a wicked man
In the bottom of a pit in a foreign land
Surrounded with the bottles of the wine 
And the waters of a thousand other wicked men

I can’t get next to him
I can’t get buried and come back without a weight of sin
If I could find a way to maybe get a letter to him
Then I could save a poor and wicked man

I have compassion
I know I won’t be late
I’m gonna find if theres another path for the wicked man to take

I became a wicked man
And I got into a pit in a foreign land
I threw a bottle in the water with a message inside 
That said I know you are a wicked man

I left my soul to him
I let the man become a bird and fly away and then
Rise from the ashes, up from the madness
Come up to be a better man

I have compassion
I found the way to live
Seek for love and find that love will always give

I met a wicked man when I was stranded in a pit in a foreign land
He stopped to help another
Discovered it’s a brother
Love is all it takes to be a righteous man, a righteous man

Look for the answers
Find second chances
Find somewhere within there is a righteous man