Hello Eternity

LYRICS

Death To Life

You know my ways and thoughts

And words before they leave my tongue.

You numbered all my days

Before my days had begun.

You know when I rise and sit

And you know when I kneel,

All about my pains and hurts

And everything I feel.

The hours and days and years to us

So imprecise.

I close my eyes and move,

From death to life.

Life passes as it goes

And you look back from day to day.

It doesn’t flash before you at the end,

No, it’s not that way.

An instant here and then you’re there with nothing in between

Except the holy hands of God…

Intervening in…

The hours and days and years to us

So imprecise

I close my eyes and move,

From death to life.

My pain and hurts and ways and thoughts and days all disappear.

And mercy overwhelms the fading time

That I spent here.

As I shut my eyes, what’s behind

Forever vanishes from view.

Nothing but you.

The hours and days and years

To us so imprecise.

I close my eyes and move,

From death to life.

First Step

Your love is higher than the heavenly realms.

It lifts me up

And overwhelms.

Your compassion clears a path to my soul,

Makes its way through the joy and sorrow.

Here, at the end of the day,

It leads me through these final steps, OK.

Your love is like the sand on the shore.

Count it all

And there’s still more.

Your kindness is preparing a place

With indescribable beauty and grace.

No words for what comes next—

Taking my first step.

Hello Eternity

Hello eternity,

You’ve been making me wait.

The years seem short

But at the end they run late.

Hello eternity,

You’ve been taking your time.

Everything I’ve had

And thought

And devised,

Nothing is mine.

All at once I see your face.

I feel your grace

In the most agonizing way.

Knowing me for who I really am.

Meeting you.

Needing you.

Hello eternity.

“Your presence is required,

Away from other’s memories of you

And all that you desired.”

Hello eternity,

There is nothing to see.

Just me alone with all my thoughts

And words

And deeds.

All at once I see your face

I feel your grace

In the most agonizing way.

Knowing me for who I really am.

Meeting you.

Needing you.

Hello eternity.

Am I really prepared?

I just have this tiny speck of faith,

But I am not scared.

Hello eternity…

There’s nothing I can do.

There never was.

It’s always been just you.

All at once I see your face

I feel your grace

In the most wonderful way.

Loving me in spite of who I’ve been.

Meeting you.

Hello.

Honest

I could tell you secrets and things you won’t believe.

Show you dim halls and corridors constructed to deceive.

Even though you think you know me,

With each caress and kiss,

I’m filled with every kind of evil thought that could exist.

Every single one of us,

If we’re honest with what we bring,

Every single one of us

Is capable of anything.

If we’re honest.

You might tell me secrets—things I can’t conceive.

Of greed and lust and selfishness and hatred that you weave

Into a tattered cloak you hide away,

And wrap around your heart.

We all share the same dark threads

But they pull us all apart.

Every single one of us,

If we’re honest with what we bring,

Every single one of us

Is capable of anything.

If we’re honest.

So we tell our stories to ourselves to hush the fear

Of what we do and feel and think,

Until conscience disappears.

Jesus didn’t come to save the proud or those who feel at ease,

But humbled ones in the darkness who fall down on their knees.

Every single one of us,

If we’re honest with what we bring—

We just beg and plead for the love of God,

That’s capable of anything.

When we’re honest.

Into Flame

Here in your presence, Lord,

Where mystery meets faith.

In the shadow of you holiness

Is where you’ve asked me to stay.

My faith is like a tiny drop,

But your power like the sea,

And as the wind of your Spirit kicks up

The waves rush right over me.

Oh, your glorious grace to me.

Oh, your infinite mercy—

Living and endless and so far above.

Oh the depth, oh the depth

Of your great love.

Right here in your company

Is where I want to live—

In the brightness of your righteousness

And in the light of forgiveness.

My heart is filled with ashes

But then your breath, as it came,

Sends them scattered to the sky

And my soul bursts into flame.

Oh, your glorious grace for me.

Oh, your infinite mercy—

Living and endless and so far above,

Oh the depth, oh the depth

Of your great love.

All the cinders and ashes,

The embers and dust…

…Are scattered to the sky

And my soul bursts into flame.

Morning

At the table

You took bread and wine.

You talked about the leaven,

You talked about the vine.

As they ate you said,

“Of me partake,

The wine will be poured out, the bread will break.”

Forgiveness and betrayal—intertwined.

In the garden

You prayed and pondered this—

The will of the Father, as you waited for a kiss.

A serpent watches.

(The grass singed as he passes through.)

A million years of hate finally coming true.

The chaos and the screams,

The lies and the hiss.

In the morning,

Illuminating fear.

Early sorrow. Early light appears.

An empty tomb.

Emptiness destroyed.

The stinging spice of sadness thrown to the ground in joy.

When mystery becomes

Faithfully clear.

Reflection

I’ve been thinking

About your artistry,

Your imagination

And creativity.

Who am I, so far below?

In your image

But in the shadow—

Faded beauty

Fancy words

And fancy clever rhymes.

I impress myself,

And sometimes others with my lines.

But every word I think of,

Every dream and more,

You’ve already thought of

A long while before

Even space and time.

It all reminds me,

As I step into this place,

I can only hope to make reflections of your grace.

I want to serve you

In the purest way I can,

With sighs of wonderment

And redeemed hands.

And your embrace.

You Reach Out

You are so free of my comprehension—

Infinite power in countless dimensions.

Who am I that you even consider

The dust that I’m made of,

Your human invention.

You reach out.

How can I see you when I am so blind

In my unfocussed, selfish, distorted pride.

At every turn, I turn away to some

Unholy passion or holy cliché.

You reach out.

Or I’d never know you.

Blood on the wood.

Blood on the ground.

Hanging in silence

Except for the sound of your

Words of love to a pitiful thief.

Whose last breath of this life was a gasp of belief.

You reach out.

Or I’d never know you.

I am the thief.

I am the leper.

I am the slave.

I am the beggar.

I am the nails

That tear through the hands,

That you’re holding open

For this helpless man.

You reach out.

My Jesus, you reach out to me.